The news that Starbucks has invested $25 million into mobile payment startup Square might not seem like good news for LevelUp. Indeed, LevelUp founder Seth Priebatsch was quoted on NYT’s Bits blog questioning the strategic value of the deal. But there’s a rather large kernel of encouragement in this story for LevelUp, and it begins with this:

Starbucks has offered its own mobile payment app since last year and processes more than a million mobile payments a week. Customers will continue to be able to use it, but they will also be able to use Pay With Square…

The fact that Starbucks has pivoted from building its own mobile payment system to a strategic investment and partnership with Square is great news for LevelUp.

In May, I wrote that LevelUp was, by its own admission, in a race against giants like Walmart and Target to get mobile payments right. The big brands (like Starbucks) have been exploring the mobile payment space on their own, eager to cut out the credit card companies once and for all. As I put it:

For LevelUp, then, the challenge is to get big enough fast enough so that Walmart and Target can’t ignore them. [LevelUp Sales VP John] Valentine likened that goal to American Express, which restaurants don’t dare not accept.

Even if you’re a fan of LevelUp, there’s no doubt that’s a tough race to win. Doable, perhaps, but tough. But if the Walmart’s and Target’s of the world come to the same conclusion as Starbucks – that it’s easier to partner than to build a mobile payment system from scratch. They’ll be looking around for promising Square competitors.

Instead of racing the giants to their customers, LevelUp could end up with easy access to them.