Russell 2000 component S&P 600 component 1999 ; 27 years ago ( 1999 ) (as Elance) 2003 ; 23 years ago ( 2003 ) (as oDesk) 2013 ; 13 years ago ( 2013 ) (as Elance-oDesk) 2015 ; 11 years ago ( 2015 ) (as Upwork) Odysseas Tsatalos Stratis Karamanlakis Upwork Inc. (formerly Elance-oDesk ) is an American freelancing platform headquartered in Palo Alto and San Francisco, California . [ 2 ] The company was formed in 2013 as Elance-oDesk after the merger of Elance Inc. and oDesk Corp. The merged company was subsequently rebranded as Upwork in 2015. [ 3 ] Elance was founded in 1998 by Bernard Sheth and Srini Anumolu in Jersey City . [ 4 ] In December 1999, the company's 22 employees relocated to Sunnyvale , in California's Silicon Valley . Elance's first product was the Elance Small Business Marketplace. [ 5 ] oDesk was founded in 2003 by two friends, Odysseas Tsatalos and Stratis Karamanlakis, who walked to work together even though one of them was in the U.S. and the other was in Greece . [ 6 ] [ 7 ] Originally created as a staffing firm, oDesk eventually became an online marketplace that allowed registered users to find, hire, and collaborate with remote workers. [ 8 ] In 2009, a hacker breached Elance and obtained the personal details of more than 1.3 million registered users including names, addresses, passwords, and associated email account data. [ 9 ] Elance and oDesk announced their merger on December 18, 2013, to create Elance-oDesk. [ 10 ] In 2015, the new company was rebranded as Upwork, which coincided with an upgrade of the oDesk platform under the same name. The newly named Upwork also planned to phase out the Elance platform within a couple of years. [ 11 ] The company was listed on the Inc. magazine 5000 list from 2009 to 2014 and filed for an initial public offering on October 3, 2018. [ 12 ] [ 13 ] In January 2020, Hayden Brown was appointed CEO of Upwork. [ 14 ] In March 2022, Upwork was named to Time ' s list of TIME100 Most Influential Companies of 2022. [ 15 ] On March 7, 2022, Upwork started suspending operations for freelancers and clients in Russia and Belarus as a sanction following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. [ 16 ] In 2023, job postings related to AI became the fastest growing category on the Upwork platform and the company created an AI services hub to address the increasing activity. [ 17 ] In 2025, Upwork partnered with OpenAI . [ 18 ] In 2024, the company introduced "Uma", an AI assistant . The system was built on large language models trained on platform data. [ 19 ] Beginning in 2023, Upwork acquired the AI video conferencing platform Headroom; the search-as-service company ObjectiveAI in 2024; and in 2025 the workforce management company Bubty and Ascen, a compliance and EOR company. [ 20 ] In 2025, Upwork created a wholly owned subsidiary, Lifted, to provide services to enterprise clients. [ 21 ] On May 7, 2026, Upwork announced its second layoff of 25% of its workforce within two years. [ 22 ] [ 23 ] Service and business model Businesses and individuals connect through Upwork platform to conduct business. Clients post a description of their job and a price range they are willing to pay for a freelancer to complete it. The client may invite specific freelancers to apply for their jobs, or post the job for any freelancer who is interested to apply. Once the client has chosen who they want to complete the job, they hire that freelancer by sending a contract with set hours, pay rate, and a deadline for the work to be completed. [ 24 ] Freelancers are also required to purchase "connects" in order to be able to bid for jobs. [ 25 ] Size, scope, and changes In March 2017, Upwork reported 14 million users in 180 countries with US$1 billion in annual freelancer billings. [ 26 ] [ 27 ] In 2020, the company purged 1.8 million freelancers. [ 28 ] [ 29 ] In 2019, CEO Hayden Brown said that Upwork would be focusing more on serving the needs of Fortune 500 companies rather than smaller companies just looking for a quick job with a single gig worker. Many of the freelancers purged were rated as "less skilled" or had lower rankings on the platform. [ 30 ] 1 2 3 4 "2025 Annual Report" . Upwork corp. February 9, 2026. ↑ Council, Stephen (October 24, 2024). "Bay Area tech company Upwork announces $28M profit, slashes staff by 21%" . SF Gate . Retrieved April 29, 2026 . ↑ Lunden, Ingrid (May 5, 2015). "Elance-oDesk Rebrands As Upwork, Debuts Slack-Like Chat Platform" . TechCrunch . Retrieved May 17, 2016 . ↑ bio, See full. "eLance founder indicted on fraud charges" . CNET . Retrieved April 21, 2026 . ↑ Thomas W. Malone; Robert J. Laubacher. "The Dawn of the E-Lance Economy" (PDF) . Harvard Business Review. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 31, 2012 . Retrieved December 25, 2010 . ↑ "California Secretary of State. Corporate filing date 1/27/2003" . Archived from the original on 15 March 2015 . Retrieved 22 June 2014 . ↑ "The story behind launching oDesk - with Gary Swart - Mixergy" . Mixergy . March 19, 2014 . Retrieved July 28, 2017 . ↑ "Elance-oDesk unveils platform, name" . www2.staffingindustry.com . Retrieved May 22, 2023 . ↑ Ashok, India. "Elance data breach: Hacker leaks 1.3 million accounts from staffing platform" . International Business Times . ↑ Levy, Ari (December 19, 2013). "Elance Merges With oDesk to Boost Service for Freelancers" . Bloomberg Technology . San Francisco . Retrieved January 18, 2014 . ↑ "oDesk becomes Upwork, but what about Elance?" . news.smallbusinesstrends.com. May 5, 2015 . Retrieved May 6, 2015 . ↑ "Upwork Just Made a Surprising Decision That Will Change Everything For Freelancers" . Inc.com . July 25, 2018 . Retrieved July 25, 2018 .

↑ Jiang, Ethel (October 3, 2018). "Upwork — the largest freelancers' network — soars 50% in trading debut" . Markets Insider . Archived from the original on October 3, 2018 . Retrieved October 3, 2018 . ↑ Stoller, Kristin (November 9, 2020). "How Upwork's First Female CEO Is Pivoting The Freelancing Business For A Remote World" . Forbes . Retrieved November 1, 2025 . ↑ Van Houten, Alison (March 30, 2022). "TIME100 Most Influential Companies of 2022 - Upwork" . TIME . Retrieved August 2, 2022 . ↑ "A Letter From Our CEO | Upwork" . ↑ Greenberg, Karl (July 11, 2023). "Upwork Launches New Generative AI Tools and Services Hub" . Tech Republic . Retrieved October 28, 2025 . ↑ Revell, Eric (July 31, 2023). "OpenAI, Upwork partner to help companies hire AI specialists" . FOX Business . Retrieved October 30, 2025 . ↑ Kherani, Sadiya (October 17, 2024). "Upwork unveils new capabilities for its Uma AI platform" . Fast Company . Retrieved October 29, 2025 . ↑ Szkutak, Rebecca (August 6, 2025). "Upwork is buying its way into corporate staffing beyond freelancers" . TechCrunch . Retrieved June 10, 2026 . ↑ Swartz, Jon (August 19, 2025). "Upwork Unveils Lifted Subsidiary for Workforce Solutions" . Techstrong.ai . Retrieved June 10, 2026 . ↑ "Jobs data live updates: Cloudflare, Upwork add to mounting tech layoffs as April jobs report looms" . Yahoo Financial . Archived from the original on May 8, 2026 . Retrieved May 8, 2026 . ↑ "A Message from Hayden Brown, Upwork CEO | Upwork" . www.upwork.com . Retrieved May 8, 2026 . ↑ "How to use Upwork effectively to hire quality talent for business?" . webdew . Retrieved May 22, 2023 . ↑ "Understanding and using Connects – Upwork Customer Service & Support | Upwork Help" . ↑ Snagajob. "Snagajob Appoints Former Upwork CEO to Board of Directors" . www.prnewswire.com (Press release) . Retrieved July 28, 2017 . ↑ "TechDay - Upwork's SVP of Marketing Explains What It Takes To Perfect An Offering That Relies On People" . techdayhq.com . Retrieved July 28, 2017 . ↑ "Hayden Brown, Upwork Inc: Profile and Biography" . Bloomberg.com . Retrieved September 9, 2020 . ↑ "1.8 million gig workers were purged from Upwork - here's why" . businessofbusiness.com . March 20, 2020 . Retrieved June 26, 2024 . ↑ Upwork. "Q4 and Full Year 2019 Prepared Remarks" . investors.upwork.com . Archived from the original on October 21, 2020 . Retrieved September 9, 2020 . Business data for Upwork: Google Reuters SEC filings Yahoo! 2015 establishments in California 2018 initial public offerings American companies established in 2015 Business services companies established in 2015 Companies based in Santa Clara, California Companies listed on the Nasdaq Employment websites in the United States Freelance marketplace websites Online marketplaces of the United States Articles with short description Short description is different from Wikidata Use American English from July 2026 All Wikipedia articles written in American English Use mdy dates from June 2020 Wikipedia neutral point of view disputes from June 2026 All Wikipedia neutral point of view disputes Articles with peacock terms from June 2026 All articles with peacock terms Articles with multiple maintenance issues