The Crunchbase News Briefing: Monday, Aug. 31, 2020

Here’s what you need to know today in startup and venture news, updated by the Crunchbase News staff throughout the day to keep you in the know.

Eruditus raises $113M for edtech

Edtech startup Eruditus has reportedly raised $113 million in funding led by Leeds Illuminate and Prosus Ventures, with participation from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and Sequoia Capital India.

Founded in 2010, the Mumbai-based company maintains partnerships with over 30 top-tier universities to develop online  higher education courses. The startup, which has offices in six countries and employs over 650 people, said it has enrolled 50,000 students in the past 12 months.

TikTok denies Triller talks as deal nears

TikTok is not in talks to sell its U.S. business to rival short-video-sharing app Triller, the company told CNBC on Monday.

Still, Triller Executive Chairman Bobby Sarnevesht insisted that the bid had been submitted. His comments came after Bloomberg News reported that London-based Centricus Asset Management and U.S. app Triller were seeking to buy TikTok’s operations in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand and India for $20 billion, citing a person familiar with the matter.

Meanwhile, CNBC is reporting that a potential purchase of TikTok’s U.S. operations could be announced as early as tomorrow. Microsoft, in partnership with Walmart, and Oracle are the top contenders. The sale price is expected to be in the range of $20 billion to $30 billion.

GoodRx, Wish file plans to go public

• E-commerce platform Wish said Monday that it confidentially filed an S-1 registration document with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission to go public. [Read more here.]

• GoodRx, provider of a prescription drug price comparison tool, also filed to go public. The company will list on the Nasdaq under the symbol GDRX. In its S-1 filing, the Santa Monica, California-based company lists revenue of $257 million in the first six months of the year, up from $173 million in the year-ago period. Unlike most tech companies tapping public markets, GoodRx is also immensely profitable, with net income of nearly $55 million in the first half of the year. [Read more here.]

Zynga, LinkedIn founders to raise $600M SPAC

Mark Pincus and Reid Hoffman, the respective founders of Zynga and LinkedIn, are coming together to raise $600 million for a special purpose acquisition company, according to a new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The new blank-check company, known as Reinvent Technology Partners, also counts Michael Thompson as a founder. Thompson is perhaps best known for co-founding BHR Capital.

Pincus and Hoffman have invested together over the course of nearly 20 years, according to the filing. They invested early in companies like Facebook, Airbnb, and Twitter, to name a few.