Mobile wallet company Isis is rumored to have $100 million in backing from its mobile operator parents Verizon Wireless, AT&T, and T-Mobile. While Isis will have a strong retail presence via the 20,000+ wireless outlets owned by the mobile networks, marketing a new payment method will be a massively expensive task. Just look at all the brand advertising carried out by Visa and MasterCard. And then, of course, there are the small matters of running pilots, building infrastructure, and providing incentives to retailers and consumers.
Building a payments ecosystem is not for the faint of heart or those with thin wallets. Isis will need every dime and likely more.
