Online staffing provider Upwork, the largest B2B human cloud firm, today filed a Form S-1 with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering. The company plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol “UPWK.”
Number of shares to be offered and price range were not yet announced.
Upwork noted it had 375,000 freelancers and 475,000 clients in more than 180 countries in 12 months ended June 30, 2018,
“The online freelance economy represents a shift in how labor markets operate,” the company wrote in its S-1 filing. “We believe that we are still in the early stages of the online freelance economy, with a multiindustry and multidecade global shift affecting how businesses find talent and how people want to work.”
Upwork posted revenue of $121.9 million in the six months ended June 30, 2018.
| (US$ thousands) | H1 2018 | H1 2017 | % growth |
| Revenue | $121,899 | $95,531 | 27.6% |
| Gross profit | $81,825 | $64,578 | 26.7% |
| Gross margin | 67.1% | 67.6% | |
| Net loss | ($7,196) | $1,369 | nm |
Revenue was $202.6 million last year.
| (US$ thousands) | FY 2017 | FY 2016 | % growth |
| Revenue | $202,552 | $164,445 | 23.2% |
| Gross profit | $137,109 | $101,867 | 34.6% |
| Gross margin | 67.7% | 61.9% | |
| Net loss | ($4,123) | ($16,223) | nm |
Upwork is based in Mountain View, Calif., with offices in San Francisco and Chicago. The Upwork brand formed in 2015 after the merger of oDesk and Elance.