A number of the executives behind Starbucks’ popular payments app have launched their own firm called Cardfree.

The firm has US$10 million in series A funding and is looking to provide a white-label payments, offers and promotions package to retailers.

Cardfree will enable payments to be made via scanning of the 2D barcode contained in a smartphone app (the Starbucks approach); cloud-based payments where the user enters a PIN into a point-of-sale terminal to validate a transaction, similar to PayPal; or using NFC to tap and pay for a purchase, the approach favoured by mobile operators.

Retailers can offer Cardfree’s white label service to end-users via an app for their smartphones or as a pre-paid card.

The CEO of Cardfree is Jon Squire who previously led the Starbucks Mobile team while senior vice president of mobile payments at mFoundry, which developed the coffee chain’s app.

While CMO of Corfire, Squire also launched Dunkin Donuts’ mobile payments app. Cardfree has two other execs who also worked on the Starbucks app.

The start-up is entering a crowded market and is attempting to differentiate itself from larger rivals by positioning itself as the retailers’ friend who will not attempt to leverage their data for its own benefit, as well as pushing their own brands to end-users, says a report in GigaOm.

In its favour, although low tech, Starbucks’ payment app has been a considerable success which might attract customers who think members of the same team can replicate their success.