Direct carrier billing, where consumers place the purchase of digital goods on their monthly phone bill, doesn't get the same attention as other mobile payment technologies like NFC or mobile wallets, but it's one part of the mobile payment market that is already seeing considerable adoption.

According to Yankee Group, direct carrier billing will account for $11 billion in transactions by 2016. It's especially popular for making purchases on social networks and gaming sites where younger users may not have access to credit cards or bank accounts.

Today, payvia, a direct carrier biller, is expanding its carrier billing services by acquiring Mogreet, a mobile marketing company that provides mobile video and rich media messaging. With the acquisition, payvia will be able to provide its merchants with targeted mobile payment transactions and ongoing engagement using branded communications, offers and mobile relationship management, payvia said.

"Our mobile payments offer resonates strongly with the market because it is built on our proprietary carrier connected technology that gives us a unique ability to understand consumer mobile usage," said Darcy Wedd, CEO of payvia. "Our clients have told us they also need a simpler way to link targeted mobile transactions to their marketing campaigns. By integrating Mogreet's solutions on our platform we answer that need."

Wedd said payvia is now the only company to solve that disconnect between traditional mobile commerce and engagement solutions.

According to payvia, Mogreet's messaging solution will be integrated into payvia's mobile payments platform. That will mean Mogreet's reach will now have an expanded footprint including North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific through payvia's connections to carriers. It also means payvia customers will have access to Mogreet's API, giving them access to not only payments but also rich media and video messaging using SMS, MMS and in-app messaging.

The payvia payment platform connects with 120 million unique mobile users and processes billions of mobile messages every year, the company said.  

"Businesses of all sizes are looking for better ways to engage with their increasingly mobile customer base to drive awareness, interest and most importantly, revenue," said James Citron, CEO of Mogreet. "For the first time ever, marketers and merchants will now have a way to connect with their customers using text, picture and video messaging, but also to drive an immediate transaction via the simplest mobile payments platform in the industry."

Citron will join payvia as chief marketing officer following the acquisition and the entire Mogreet team will join payvia.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Read more about direct carrier billing.