MasterCard is leading an investment round in mFoundry, the mobile banking firm behind the popular Starbucks payment app. This is the credit card giant’s first investment in the m-payments market and follows similar investment by rivals Visa and Amex.  mFoundry is set to release details shortly of its latest financial round which involves MasterCard alongside Intel Capital, Fidelity Information Services and Motorola Mobility, says AllThingsD. The mobile banking firm will also cooperate with MasterCard on developing new services. In addition to the Starbucks app, mFoundry works on less high-profile mobile banking apps including for Citi and Bank of America. The link-up with MasterCard will involve taking those apps and adding NFC capability to them.

Although this is MasterCard's first investment in a start-up firm, it has been active recently in the mobile payments market. It has just announced a link-up with Spanish mobile operator Telefonica in Brazil. In addition, it has teamed up with Intel (another mFoundry investor) to develop security for online shopping that makes use of NFC-based handsets. And the Google Wallet initially only worked with a Citi MasterCard although others are set to be added.