• by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, October 3, 2013

Mobile wallets continue to grow behind the scenes.

I wrote a while back about how much of the technology around mobile commerce is best left unseen (The Mobile Wallets Flying Under the Radar) and how some retailers are incorporating technology into their own apps, converting them to mobile wallets.

Now you can add Subway to the group.

The company just inked a deal for Paydiant to power a range of mobile wallet capabilities, including payments in the food chain’s mobile app.

Paydiant already had deals with Pulse, part of Discover Financial Services, Diebold, Bank of America and Capital One.

The interesting twist here is the mobile wallets and payments are white labelled, so that the Paydiant name isn’t seen, only the mobile wallet capability within the Subway app, which rolls out into stores later this year.

Paydiant is one of a number of mobile commerce companies flying under the radar, what I refer to as facilitators of mobile influence.

They are essentially the empowerment plumbing or the engines behind a lot of the brand activity of mobile commerce.

Another example is Xtify, which powers some of the in-store mobile activities of very well-known brands. Coincidentally, IBM announced just today that it is acquiring Xtify.

In the case of Paydiant, the company targets its efforts at facilitating other companies’ mobile payment efforts rather than becoming a stand-alone mobile payment company.

“We don’t’ compete with the Googles and PayPals of the world,” said Chris Gardner, co-founder of Boston-based Paydiant. “We believe big brands will want their own apps, payments and wallets.”

The Subway app can integrate mobile payments, offers, its loyalty program and point of sales systems.

Though it’s still quite earl in the world of mobile payments, consumers at 40,000 Subway are about to get a taste of at least one way to pay by phone.