Deal Talk: Naspers, Tencent may invest in Pine Labs; Digifin may raise seed funding from Sequoia, Matrix Partners

TechCircle brings you a round-up of technology investments and M&A deals reported from across newsrooms.

Naspers, Tencent may pick up stake in PineLabs

Chinese conglomerate Tencent Holdings, South African internet and media giant Naspers and its fintech unit PayU are in talks to pick up a stake in digital payments platform Pine Labs.

Pine Labs, which provides point-of-sale machines to merchants, is seeking a valuation of $1.5 billion for the deal, The Economic Times reported.

The fintech company has also held talks with Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec (CDPQ), a pension fund based in Canada.

Tencent and CDPQ, unlike Naspers-PayU, are looking to secure a minority stake in Pine Labs.

In July, the company secured a fund infusion of over $102 million from its Singapore-headquartered parent company Pine Labs Pte.

Digifin may raise seed funding

Amica Financial Technologies, which operates digital banking startup Digifin, is close to securing seed funding from American venture capital firm Sequoia Capital and investment firm Matrix Venture Partners.

Sequoia and Matrix Partners are looking to invest over $10 million each in Digifin, Entrackr reported.

While Vietnamese venture capital firm Beenext is looking to invest $5 million, Munish Verma, managing partner at Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, will also participate in the funding round.

NiYo, one of Digifin's most formidable competitors in the digital banking space, recently raised $35 million in a Series B round led by Hong Kong-based venture capital firm Horizons Ventures and Tencent Holdings.