San Francisco’s Paymo launched a mobile-payment service in 39 markets around the world, joining an ever-increasing number of startups looking to deliver a mobile wallet.

Paymo is targeting digital transactions and micropayments — roughly defined as transactions of $10 or less — with a platform that enables users to enter a mobile phone number to initiate a transaction. Consumers must acknowledge receipt of a text message to finalize the purchase, and charges are billed directly to the phone.

While the mobile-payment field has become a remarkably crowded space in the past two years, and Paymo declined to disclose any operator agreements — which will likely be key to its success. But the startup boasts a front office with impressive credentials: CEO and co-founder Paul McGuire was co-founder of mBlox Inc., a powerhouse in the mobile transaction space, and Paymo CTO Alexandre Gonthier co-founded Valista, which develops mobile payment software. The company also named former Visa executive Jon Prideaux as senior advisor.

Others on the mobile-payment playground include PayPal, Obopay, TextPayMe and Secure Wireless Transfers Corp.

“In today’s challenging global economic environment we can’t afford to exclude 70% of consumers from participating in the online marketplace,” McGuire said in a prepared statement. “With Paymo, online merchants can open their sites to new consumers and revenue opportunities. Consumers who don’t have or don’t want to use their credit cards online now have a safe and secure way to shop online, without the need for sign-ins, user names or passwords.”

The company hopes to start accepting payments from U.S. consumers early next year.

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