（2018年9月13日，/HRoot.com/）近日，自由職業者平臺Upwork宣佈計劃在納斯達克交易所上市，股票代碼為UPWK。目前，Upwork擁有近50萬客戶，連接375,000名自由開發者、作家、營銷人員等。
有報道稱，另一位自由職業者平臺Fiverr也將在2019年進行首次公開募股，估值為10億美元。
目前為止，Upwork尚未披露打算在IPO中籌集的資金金額，但其S-1（招股書）提供了有關公司財務狀況和其他指標的一些細節：
——在截至2018年6月的12個月內，Upwork營收2.28億美元，總服務價值為15.6億美元。目前銷售額增長率約為20%；
——公司的運營出現了淨虧損，在截至2018年6月的6個月中虧損了710萬美元；
——Upwork在截至2018年6月的一年裡，在其平臺上創建了大約200萬個項目，涉及金融專家、開發人員和設計師、營銷專家和各類作家。該公司表示，目前約有37.5萬名自由職業者和47.5萬名客戶在其平臺上註冊；
——公司業務遍及180個國家。
Upwork由兩個在線工作平臺 Elance 及 Odesk 合併而成，於2015年更名為Upwork。在Upwork上市消息披露之前，2018年7月有報道稱，Upwork已提交了一份呈報前機密性審核文件，以啟動這一進程。呈報前機密性審核文件是許多初創公司試探投資者、在不需要公眾監督的情況下上市前的第一步。
該公司最近一次披露的估值要追溯到2014年，當時估值約為7億美元。考慮到合併後的狀態，其股權結構表並不完全清楚。據私人資本市場數據研究SaaS公司Pitchbook統計，Upwork本身僅籌集了約3,000萬美元。該公司的投資者包括DAG Ventures、Benchmark Capital、T. Rowe Price、FirstMark Capital、Jackson Square Ventures、Globespan Capital Partners和Stripes Group。
Upwork表示，IPO所得的部分資金將用於償還硅谷銀行提供的1,900萬美元貸款。
HAYS REVENUE UP 13% FOR FISCAL YEAR, SEES STRONG CONDITIONS
(Sep.13, 2018, /techcrunch.com/)Another tech IPO is coming around the corner in what has been a strong year for startups taking the plunge and going public. Upwork — a marketplace connecting 375,000 freelance developers, writers, marketers and others with close to half a million clients — announced a plan to list on the Nasdaq exchange to trade under the ticker UPWK.
There have been reports that Fiverr, another freelancer platform, will also IPO by next year with a $1 billion valuation.
So far, Upwork has not disclosed how much it intends to raise in the IPO, but its S-1 provides some details about the financials and other metrics of the company:
— In the 12 months that ended in June 2018, Upwork made $228 million in revenues on Gross Services Value of $1.56 billion. Sales are currently growing at around 20 percent.
— The company, however, operates at a net loss, most recently posting $7.1 million for the six months ending June 2018.
— Upwork calls itself the largest global skilled freelancer marketplace. In the year that ended in June 2018, some 2 million projects were created on its platform engaging finance specialists, developers and designers, marketing specialists and writers of different kinds. It said it currently has some 375,000 freelancers and 475,000 clients registered on its platform.
— The company operates in 180 countries.
The news comes after reports in July of this year that Upwork — rebranded in 2015 after the merger of Elance and oDesk — had made a confidential filing to initiate the process. Confidential filings is a route that many startups take in the first instance to start to sound out investors and begin the process of listing without as much public scrutiny.
The company most recently disclosed a valuation way back in 2014, when it was valued at around $700 million. The cap table is not completely clear given its merged status. According to Pitchbook, Upwork itself has only raised around $30 million. Investors in the company include DAG Ventures, Benchmark Capital , T. Rowe Price, FirstMark Capital, Jackson Square Ventures, Globespan Capital Partners and Stripes Group.
Upwork said that part of the IPO proceeds will be used to pay back $19 million of a loan made by Silicon Valley Bank.
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