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Zapier reached a $5B valuation with $1.3M of funding

forbes.com

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Re: Zapier reached a $5B valuation with $1.3M of funding

#41

Post by pc86 »

capableweb wrote: post #22
_gmnw wrote: post #6

They did take VC funding though? By pulling themselves up by their bootstraps (and a meager $1.3 million in funding) they were able to start a company! That's not an insignificant sum of money, I see that they didn't take further rounds, but still this feels like a nice marketing piece with a bad headline.

Very unlike HN to upvote a comment that has reacted only to the headline on HN, not even the articles own headline, even less the body of the article. Maybe because everyone reading the comments is doing it the same way?

How is that "unlike HN?" I pretty regularly see comments that either make it clear the author didn't read the article (e.g. arguing against points not made, or "adding" additional information that's in the second paragraph) or explicitly say they're only responding to title or some tangential point.

Re: Zapier reached a $5B valuation with $1.3M of funding

#42

Post by imacoder »

jeff18 wrote: post #34
imacoder wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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

If it has shares, it's funded. Doesn't matter if they are traded later. Also, HN is an echo chamber.

Re: Zapier reached a $5B valuation with $1.3M of funding

#43

Post by toomuchtodo »

superbcarrot wrote: post #29

Sometimes I get shocked by these numbers and it reminds me how little I know about business. Like if you showed me the wikipedia page for Zapier and asked me give it some value, I would be way off. Or if you pitched the business idea to me, I would tell you do something better with your time.

Khan Academy has an amazing collection of videos on finance. I highly recommend it for understanding cash flows, enterprise value, etc. It's helped me transition (one foot out the door) from tech to finance.

Re: Zapier reached a $5B valuation with $1.3M of funding

#44

Post by kritiko »

marketingtech wrote: post #28

Zapier joins Tealium and Segment on the list of billion dollar valuations for powering the next generation of ad tech. As cross-site cookies and browser pixels are increasingly blocked, ad platforms are moving from browser-based tracking to server-side data transfer. Like those other companies, Zapier provides a single integration point that funnels user and conversion data to dozens of marketing companies' server-si…

How is this CCPA / GDPR compliant?

Re: Zapier reached a $5B valuation with $1.3M of funding

#45

Post by DamnYuppie »

enra wrote: post #23

The article title is accurate, the one in HN right now is not. The point was that they did YC and seed round but didn’t raise funding after that. Traditionally startups raise every 18mo and have raised A,B,C,D etc in ~10 years and before hitting $5B valuation. Even with the latest round, it was a secondary sale, so not dilutive raise. Some investors sold shares to other investors but no new shares where created. Avoi…

This will work out very well for YC as well as it means their shares were not diluted. Overall it is a huge win for everyone at Zapier and their early investors, job well done!

Re: Zapier reached a $5B valuation with $1.3M of funding

#46

Post by [deleted] »

kritiko wrote: post #44
marketingtech wrote: post #28

Zapier joins Tealium and Segment on the list of billion dollar valuations for powering the next generation of ad tech. As cross-site cookies and browser pixels are increasingly blocked, ad platforms are moving from browser-based tracking to server-side data transfer. Like those other companies, Zapier provides a single integration point that funnels user and conversion data to dozens of marketing companies' server-si…

How is this CCPA / GDPR compliant?

[deleted]

Re: Zapier reached a $5B valuation with $1.3M of funding

#47

Post by marketingtech »

kritiko wrote: post #44
marketingtech wrote: post #28

Zapier joins Tealium and Segment on the list of billion dollar valuations for powering the next generation of ad tech. As cross-site cookies and browser pixels are increasingly blocked, ad platforms are moving from browser-based tracking to server-side data transfer. Like those other companies, Zapier provides a single integration point that funnels user and conversion data to dozens of marketing companies' server-si…

How is this CCPA / GDPR compliant?

There's a distinction between being a data controller and a data processor.

The businesses that use these platforms are the data *controllers* and are responsible for implementing consent, "do not sell my information", "show me my data", or "delete my data" flows as required by law. The platforms generally offer APIs to implement these required data flows in a centralized way, which is another major value prop for them.

The platforms serve as the data *processor* and can assume the data is compliantly obtained by the controller until informed otherwise.

Re: Zapier reached a $5B valuation with $1.3M of funding

#48

Post by vladislav »

_gmnw wrote: post #6

They did take VC funding though? By pulling themselves up by their bootstraps (and a meager $1.3 million in funding) they were able to start a company! That's not an insignificant sum of money, I see that they didn't take further rounds, but still this feels like a nice marketing piece with a bad headline.

It's strictly speaking correct in that the $5B valuation was established purely on the secondary market and only from sales of shares of investors (not common holders), which doesn't give the company any VC funding. Also $1.3M in seed funding is a rounding error to get to $5B.

Re: Zapier reached a $5B valuation with $1.3M of funding

#50

Post by dang »

supernova87a wrote: post #15

I don't understand. They first say that they didn't start with VCs. And only finally, 2 months ago, "Sequoia and Steadfast Financial bought shares at a $5 billion valuation from some of Zapier’s original investors." But the original investors were "Bessemer Venture Partners, Threshold, Salesforce Ventures and Missouri-based Permanent Equity..." So how is that not having VC at your origins?

The submitted title was "Zapier reached a $5B valuation without VC funding". We've changed it now.
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