As a small startup, the mobile payment space shouldn’t be appealing. Every carrier and credit card company seems to have its own system, the space is fragmented, crowded and no standard for payment mechanisms has emerged. (QR codes, really?) To compete, startups need lots of capital, and then they need hardware. Which is why you have to give LevelUp some credit. Since relaunching its mobile payment and loyalty solution in October, the startup has raised $31 million from the likes of Deutsche Telekom, onboarded 3,600 merchants (with 800 signing on in August) and eliminated the transaction or “swipe” fees that cost merchants $50 billion each year. But if it really wants to solve the mobile payments conundrum, LevelUp has to support every method people use to pay with their phones. It’s a tall order amidst uncertainty, but today the startup added another big piece, announcing new hardware that supports NFC payment for any phone with NFC capabilities.