Business Description

Overview Upwork Inc., through its complementary, wholly owned subsidiaries, connects businesses with global, AI-enabled talent across every on-demand work type, including freelance, agency, fractional, and payrolled. Our portfolio of platforms and other workforce solutions includes the Upwork Marketplace, the world’s human and AI-powered work marketplace that connects businesses with on-demand access to highly skilled independent talent worldwide, and Lifted, our wholly owned subsidiary that provides a purpose-built solution for enterprise organizations to source, contract, manage, and pay talent across the full spectrum of contingent work. Our customers consist of both talent and clients. We define talent as those who deliver services through the Upwork Marketplace, Lifted, or other Upwork workforce solutions. We define clients as customers who seek and engage with talent through these platforms and other workforce solutions. Talent includes independent professionals and agencies of varying sizes, while clients range from small businesses and entrepreneurs to large enterprises, including Fortune 100 companies. We measure economic activity across our portfolio of platforms and other workforce solutions using Gross Services Volume, which we refer to as GSV. GSV represents the total dollar value transacted through all Upwork platforms and other workforce solutions, including client spend for talent services. GSV also includes other client and talent value-added services, such as AI-based solutions, purchases of Connects (which are virtual tokens that are required for talent to bid on projects and purchase ads products on the Upwork Marketplace), payment processing, memberships, and currency services. 1 With customers in over 180 countries, our platforms and other workforce solutions enabled $4.0 billion of GSV for the year ended December 31, 2025. Our platforms and other workforce solutions serve as a powerful discovery engine for talent, helping them find rewarding, engaging, and flexible work, as well as market their services and build their independent businesses and careers. Through the Upwork Marketplace, talent benefit from access to quality clients and secure, timely payments while enjoying the flexibility to run their own businesses, set their own schedules, and work from their preferred locations on projects that they find fulfilling. In addition, talent have real-time visibility into opportunities that are in high demand, allowing them to focus on developing sought-after skills. Through Lifted, talent participate in enterprise engagements through structured workforce programs that support a variety of contingent labor engagements with enterprise clients, along with contract management, compliance support, and payment processes tailored to enterprise requirements. For clients, our platforms and other workforce solutions provide fast, secure, and efficient access to AI-augmented solutions and high-quality talent across more than 10,000 skills in over 130 categories of work, including AI-related projects, web, mobile and software development, administrative support, sales and marketing, design and creative, and customer service. We offer a direct-to-talent approach as an alternative to traditional intermediaries such as third-party staffing firms, recruiters, and traditional agencies by enabling clients to engage high-quality talent through our platforms and other workforce solutions. These offerings enable clients to streamline workflows, including talent sourcing, outreach, contracting, and engagement management. In addition, our platforms and other workforce solutions provide the infrastructure necessary for confident remote collaboration, including communication and collaboration tools, consolidated invoicing, and payment protection that supports reliable outcomes for both clients and talent. Revenue is primarily derived through the Upwork Marketplace, which charges fees to talent as a percentage of their billings to clients, which we refer to as talent service fees, and fees to clients as a percentage of payment to talent, which we refer to as client marketplace fees. Through the Upwork Marketplace offerings, we also generate revenue through ads and monetization products, talent memberships, and other services, such as foreign currency exchange when clients choose to pay in currencies other than the U.S. dollar.…