Soon, you may be able to throw away your wallet. That's the vision of Nokia (NYSE: NOK), which announced that it will launch a mobile payments service.

The service is called Nokia Money (the platform is based on Obopay, in which Nokia recently made an investment). For the most part, it is geared for simplicity, which is definitely crucial for the consumer market. Essentially, you'll be able to send a payment by using another person's phone number. There will be other helpful features, such as the viewing of account balances in real time.

Yesterday, I talked to some tech vets about mobile payments. While there has been lots of traction in overseas markets -- especially Asia -- it's still pretty tough in the U.S. Hey, when it comes to making payments, it seems that credit and debit cards work pretty well.

Despite this, a variety of mobile payments companies are still trying rev things up. And one is Obopay, an early pioneer in the space. In fact, this week the firm announced that it snagged $20 million in venture funding.

So why Obopay? Well, the firm realizes that it can't take a "go-it-alone" strategy. Instead, it has been effective in putting together key strategic alliances. For example, some of its investors include Essar Communications Holdings Limited, Richmond Global Cellular, and Citigroup (NYSE: C).

Oh, and some of the company's employees have invested in the latest round of funding -- of course, using their mobile Obopay accounts.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook (www.mergerbook.com) and is also a principal in Averiware, which provides an ERP system to small and mid-size businesses.

With the huge number of mobile phones across the world, there's certainly a big opportunity for companies that provide payment systems.

One of the key players is Obopay, which has pretty cool technology and is fairly easy for consumers. The company has also struck alliances with Verizon (NYSE: VZ), Citigroup (NYSE: C), and Time-Warner's (NYSE: TWX) AOL.

To ramp things up even more, Obopay has raised a cool $29 million in venture capital from Richmond Global Cellular, Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM), Redpoint Ventures, AllianceBernstein, Citigroup, and Societe Generale.

These investors certainly should provide lots of strategic value.

Despite this, I still think it will be no easy feat to win in the marketplace. First of all, customer adoption will take some more time, and more importantly, there are other companies – like eBay's (NASDAQ: EBAY) PayPal that have some clear advantages, such as mega brands and large customer bases to leverage.

If you want to see some more venture capital deals, click here.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.