How is telegram funded? App is near perfection so I wonder how this can be an ad free app.

Pavel Durov is a billionaire and this is his (and his brother's) pet project. He made his money starting VK (Russia's Facebook)

They raised a billion in bond sales in March. It likely became difficult to keep self funding Telegram.

Title is a bit misleading: many channels already have ads, Telegram just wants a cut now.

They raised a billion a few months ago.

If it's not encrypted end-to-end, why exactly would it be alarming to an oppressive government?

It's still encrypted over the wire. And Pavel Durov isn't exactly a bootlicker (see his history with Russia).

That said, who knows who has access to Telegram servers.

So, it's encrypted exactly the same way ChatRoulette is?