Upwork Inc. (formerly Elance-oDesk) is an American freelancing platform headquartered in Santa Clara and San Francisco, California.[2] The company was formed in 2013 as Elance-oDesk after the merger of Elance Inc. and oDesk Corp. The merged company was subsequently rebranded as Upwork in 2015.[3]
In March 2022, Upwork was named to Time's list of TIME100 Most Influential Companies of 2022.[4]
History
Elance was founded in 1998 by MIT graduate Bernard Sheth and Wall Street veteran Srini Anumolu in Jersey City. In December 1999, the company's 22 employees relocated to Sunnyvale, in California's Silicon Valley. Elance's first product was the Elance Small Business Marketplace.[5]