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Online freelance marketplace connecting businesses with independent professionals for project-based and contract work.
Online freelance marketplace connecting businesses with independent professionals for project-based and contract work.
Charges a cut on every contract: a fee deducted from the freelancer's earnings and a marketplace fee added for the client, plus freelancers buy credits called Connects to apply for jobs. Revenue therefore tracks total spending on the platform and the share it keeps.
Moat: narrow (network effects, scale, brand). A two-sided marketplace with large freelancer/client pools is hard for new entrants to match.
Headquarters: Santa Clara, California, US · Founded: 2015 · Employees: 630
Size Upwork (UPWK) is a United States Industrials company (Personnel Services) with a market value of $1.26B, the 2107th largest of 3,117 United States companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at $10.02 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares gained 13.6%, against +23.9% for the median peer and -1.1% for the United States market (cap-weighted) — 9th lowest of 21 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue fell 1.2% over the last twelve months (peer median +0.8%); the operating margin is 18.4% (peer median 3.5%).
Valuation It trades at 8.9× forward earnings against a peer median of 16.1× (2nd cheapest of 20).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about -7% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +16%, so the hurdle is -23 pp: the price already allows for a slowdown.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 20.5 points above its cost of capital (9.9% WACC).
Backlog Backlog (remaining performance obligations) was $2.50M at 30 Sep 2024, down 89% on a year earlier — 0.0 years of trailing revenue. Backlog detail →
Short interest Short interest is 15.2% of the free float (15 Oct 2026).
Next results Next results expected around 17 Feb 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $771M | $788M | $769M | $689M | $618M |
| Revenue growth | — | +2% | +12% | +11% | — |
| Gross profit | $594M | $604M | $593M | $519M | $458M |
| EBITDA | $179M | $157M | $83.7M | $2.26M | -$80.7M |
| Net income | $104M | $115M | $216M | $46.9M | -$89.9M |
| Free cash flow | $160M | $223M | $139M | $13.9M | -$2.17M |
| Capital expenditure | $39.6M | $25.1M | $14.4M | $16.4M | $8.73M |
| Total debt | $18.0M | $371M | $369M | $368M | $582M |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Upwork UPWK | $1.26B | +14% | -1% | 18% | 8.9× | -7.1% |
| Fiverr International FVRR | n/a | -28% | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Microsoft MSFT | $3.94T | +28% | +18% | 47% | 25.5× | 17.2% |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | UPWK | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +16.9% | -2.8% | highest of 21 |
| 6-month return | +13.6% | +23.9% | 9th lowest of 21 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -56.1% | -15.9% | lowest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | -1.2% | +0.8% | 10th lowest of 21 |
| Operating margin | 18.4% | 3.5% | 3rd highest of 21 |
| Forward P/E | 8.9× | 16.1× | 2nd cheapest of 20 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | -7.1% | 6.0% | 3rd least demanding of 19 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +16.1% | +7.1% | 4th highest of 19 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | -23.2 pp | -1.2 pp | 2nd least demanding of 19 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | +20.5 pp | +5.6 pp | 5th highest of 20 |
| EV / EBITDA | 5.4× | 9.1× | cheapest of 10 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | -1.6× | -0.7× | 5th least indebted of 19 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Upwork UPWK | United States | $1.26B | +14% | -1% | 18% | 8.9× | -7.1% | +16.1% |
| Hays HAS.L | United Kingdom | $1.24B | +75% | -3% | 1% | 33.0× | 18.3% | +2.6% |
| SMS 2175.T | Japan | $1.31B | +33% | +8% | 11% | 31.1× | 19.2% | +12.5% |
| JAC Recruitment 2124.T | Japan | $1.21B | +34% | +12% | 26% | 19.3× | -1.0% | +16.4% |
| Open Up 2154.T | Japan | $1.11B | +12% | -11% | 10% | 13.1× | -6.5% | +11.1% |
| Kforce KFRC | United States | $970M | +25% | +2% | 5% | 18.0× | 9.8% | -1.0% |
| Grupa Pracuj spolka akcyjna GPP.WA | Poland | $919M | +23% | +5% | 37% | 13.1× | -1.9% | +22.1% |
| Michael Page PAGE.L | United Kingdom | $896M | +60% | -3% | 2% | 43.4× | 23.5% | +4.1% |
| UT Group Co.,Ltd. 2146.T | Japan | $868M | +22% | -13% | 7% | 16.1× | 6.7% | +7.7% |
| ManpowerGroup MAN | United States | $2.07B | +49% | +7% | 2% | 10.3× | -0.4% | 0.0% |
| Synergie SDG.PA | France | $753M | -3% | +5% | 3% | 11.8× | -13.4% | +8.2% |
| Barrett Business Services BBSI | United States | $725M | 0% | +6% | 4% | 18.2× | 1.9% | +7.1% |
| Beijing Career International 300662.SZ | China | $643M | -10% | +13% | 2% | 12.0× | 10.6% | +29.9% |
| Groupe Crit CEN.PA | France | $534M | -20% | +1% | 3% | 8.3× | n/a | n/a |
| Jinhai Medical Technology 2225.HK | Hong Kong | $3.02B | -6% | +75% | -17% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| dip 2379.T | Japan | $520M | -17% | -9% | 7% | 68.1× | -1.1% | +11.0% |
| HRnetGroup CHZ.SI | Singapore | $519M | -9% | +1% | 7% | 14.0× | -13.1% | +6.2% |
| Kelly Services KELYA | United States | $507M | +40% | -10% | 1% | 10.2× | 12.8% | -1.2% |
| Quess QUESS.NS | India | $505M | +41% | -12% | 2% | 17.1× | 16.3% | +7.1% |
| en Inc. 4849.T | Japan | $504M | +60% | -11% | 7% | 9.6× | 5.3% | +6.7% |
| SThree STEM.L | United Kingdom | $481M | +65% | -9% | 2% | 42.2× | 10.2% | +1.6% |
Upwork reported $2.50M of remaining performance obligations at 30 Sep 2024, down 89% from a year earlier and down 51% from the previous quarter. That is 0.0 years of trailing revenue already under contract. Book-to-bill last quarter: 0.99.