Upwork is buying its way to staffing companies beyond freelancers

Upwork, a platform that connects businesses with freelancers, announced two acquisitions, helping to build a new, independent, enterprise-centric business that can expand the range of the market.

The San Francisco-based company announced that it had acquired workforce management platform Bubty and signed a decisive agreement on August 6 to acquire Global Compliance and EOR (Record Employer) ASCEN (Record Employer) ahead of its second quarter revenue call.

Upwork integrates these two companies into existing enterprise businesses and creates standalone entities under Upwork umbrella.

This move is important as it will provide access to talent beyond the workforce of independent contractors. The new entity supports contract types including record agents, record employers, and staff growth.

Hayden Brown, president and CEO of Upwork, told TechCrunch that it’s right to launch this new enterprise-centric business as Upwork’s existing enterprise customers increasingly want access to these talent pools.

“Most providers that exist today force customers to have flexibility and compliance, or speed and scale, or digital tools, while actually robust and have something for the company,” Brown said. “And with this new ability we are refusing to compromise. We are giving our customers all the benefits they’ve been looking for. We hear loudly and clearly that they want this singular solution.”

Brown said Upwork’s existing enterprise business accounts for around $100 million of the company’s approximately $750 million annual revenue.

Upwork has decided to make the enterprise business an independent entity as the company has very different needs from the main business work of Upwork for SMEs.

Keeping them separate will allow for better external branding and better internal focus, Brown said.

Upwork has reviewed more than 100 potential companies to build the business, Brown said. The company landed in Bubty and Ascen, not only on what they bring separately, but also on how they worked together.

“We saw through the power of those pilots how impactful their technology is and how easy it is to put together what they essentially offer and put together existing products to deliver something very new and innovative in the market,” Brown added.

Details of the branding and full offering for the new standalone business are expected to be announced later this year.