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View All NewsUpwork Q1 revenue rises 37%, unveils new work marketplace and rebranding
Amid continued interest in freelancing and remote work, online staffing platform Upwork Inc. (NASDAQ: UPWK) reported revenue rose 36.6% year over year while gross service volume increased. Upwork also announced a new work marketplace as well as a rebrand.
“After a record year in 2020, we’re off to an even stronger 2021,” Upwork President and CEO Hayden Brown said. “We continue to see success with our strategy as demonstrated by accelerating growth of both new clients and core clients, growing spend per client, and increasing customer lifetime value.”
| (US$ thousands) | Q1 2021 | Q1 2020 | % change |
| Revenue | $113,619 | $83,196 | 36.6% |
| Gross profit | $83,178 | $59,711 | 39.3% |
| Gross margin | 73.2% | 71.8% | |
| Net loss | ($7,835) | ($10,021) | nm |
Gross services volume rose by 41% year over year to $786.8 million. Gross services volume includes the total amount clients spend on the platform as well as additional fees charged to both clients and freelancers for other services.
Revenue by segment
| (US$ thousands) | Q1 2021 | Q1 2020 | % change |
| Marketplace | $104,670 | $74,782 | 40.0% |
| Managed services | $8,949 | $8,414 | 6.4% |
Guidance
Upwork forecast second-quarter revenue of between $119 million to $121 million, an increase of between 36.0% and 38.2%.
The company also revised upward its forecast for full-year revenue growth to between 28.5% and 31.1%.
Work marketplace
Meanwhile, the company’s new work marketplace is designed as an ecosystem that offers a number of ways for freelancers and clients to connect. It positions the company in competition with job boards.
The work marketplace will enable companies to post jobs and hire on their own as well as browse and buy pre-scoped projects. It also offers the use teams of recruiters as well as Upwork’s suite of management and compliance tools.
“We’re in the midst of a once-in-a-lifetime, tectonic shift in how work gets done and there’s no looking back,” Brown said. “We were compelled to introduce the work marketplace because when we spoke to customers, it became really clear to us that traditional staffing firms and ‘gig’ solutions for freelancing are holding back the full potential of this market by perpetuating transactional relationships and commoditizing freelancers.”
Rebrand
Upwork also announced a rebranding that included an overhaul of its master brand as well as its logo.
Share price and market cap
Shares in Upwork were down 10.92% to $38.25 as of 11:48 a.m. Eastern time; they were 40.12% below their 52-week high, according to FT.com. The company had a market cap of $5.41 billion.