Google Ventures has recently invested in Southlake, TX-based mobile payment provider Corduro. The amount of the investment was not disclosed.

According to Corduro’s website they offer “a range of payment services, for Internet, mobile, and traditional retail transactions, including support for recurring payments.” TechCrunch reports that “The service offers everything from electronic checks and bill pay to recurring payment support.”

Google Ventures announced the investment yesterday—just one day before mobile payment app Square launched on the iPad. Square’s iPhone app is scheduled for release later this week. Square uses an attached credit card reader to essentially turn any iPad or iPhone into a cash register.

Investing in a competing platform to Square makes a lot of sense for Google as they battle Apple for mobile supremacy.

One could argue that this is just another example of Google playing catchup with mobile; however, playing catchup is not always such a bad thing. Google wasn’t the first search engine and look at them now. Sometimes playing catchup helps set a benchmark for innovation and can help illuminate pitfalls along the way. Of course, playing catchup with Apple is a whole other story.

In the mean, time I wish good luck to my fellow Texans over at Corduro and congratulations on scoring an investment from Google Ventures!