[vmception]

The article says “hamster wheel”, not that they didn’t take it. The headline here adds ambiguity that wasnt written

[dang]

OK, we've disambiguated that in the title above. (Submitted title was "Zapier reached a $5B valuation without VC funding".)

[imacoder]

If there is a valuation, then there was funding or there will be funding.

Looks like funding came from YC, so yeah, they were funded.

[jeff18]

Not necessarily! Shares trade all the time without funding the company. The valuation depends on what people pay for those shares.