Upwork told investors on 2 November that Lifted, its enterprise business, bought WorkMotion, a Berlin-based employer of record, in a cash deal that closed on 30 October. The release says WorkMotion will directly employ contingent talent across more than 30 countries. For HR and procurement leaders who buy contingent labour and global employment through one vendor, it moves a layer of the supply chain inside the vendor.
What was announced
The announcement sat inside Upwork’s third-quarter results release, filed with the SEC as an exhibit to an 8-K. Its subheadline reads “Lifted, an Upwork company, acquires WorkMotion, a leading employer of record (EOR).”
The company’s quarterly report gives the terms. On 30 October 2026, Lifted completed the acquisition of 100% of the equity interests of WorkMotion Software GmbH, a privately held, Germany-based employer-of-record business, for cash consideration of approximately $129.7 million. Upwork funded the price with cash on hand. The filing says the purchase will be accounted for as a business combination, and that the initial accounting is not finished because the deal closed shortly before the statements were issued. The split of the price between assets, liabilities and goodwill is therefore not yet public. Upwork also booked $5.7 million of transaction costs, mostly legal and accounting fees, in the third quarter.
Chief executive Hayden Brown tied the deal to the company’s enterprise plans. “We are doubling down on our enterprise strategy with Lifted’s acquisition of WorkMotion, a leading Berlin-based EOR, to capture growing global demand,” Brown, president and CEO of Upwork Inc., said in the release.
What the deal adds to Lifted
An employer of record is the legal employer of a worker on behalf of a client company. The release describes WorkMotion’s role in terms of reach: it “will directly employ contingent talent across more than 30 countries.”
The company states three expected results. The acquisition “is expected to strengthen our Enterprise offering, reduce third-party EOR dependency, and deliver more consistent pricing and experiences for global clients.” The second item matters most to a buyer. The wording implies Lifted used outside EOR providers for some of this work. With the close, it owns one.
The release places the deal in a sequence of enterprise moves. It says the acquisition builds “on the success of Ascen,” and that Lifted signed three new customers in the quarter, is moving existing Enterprise customers onto the Lifted platform and was named a leader in Everest Group’s 2026 PEAK Matrix assessment of Contractor of Record and Contingent Employer of Record solutions.
The quarter around it
Upwork reported third-quarter revenue of $185.6 million and GAAP net income of $31.8 million, up 8% from a year earlier. Adjusted EBITDA was $63.8 million, up 7%, a 34.4% margin. Gross services volume (GSV) was $914.1 million across 717,000 active clients, and spend per active client rose 8% to $5,418.
For the fourth quarter, the company guided to revenue of $169 million to $177 million and adjusted EBITDA of $51 million to $55 million. Full-year guidance is revenue of $742 million to $750 million and adjusted EBITDA of $236 million to $240 million. Erica Gessert, chief financial officer since April 2023, will step down on 1 January 2027 and stay on in an advisory role for several months. Chief business officer Peter Sanborn becomes the next CFO.
Where it sits among global-employment deals
This site has covered two other global-employment moves recently. Deel launched Pangaea Models and Emet Lab for payroll and global work, and Multiplier’s platform data showed sales hiring through its service up 108%. Lifted’s deal adds a third kind of move: a freelance marketplace taking on the legal employment of the people who work through it.
In our reading, the pattern is a marketplace taking ownership of the employment layer that used to be a partner’s job. The release does not say how WorkMotion’s existing customers or its own contractor and employee base will be handled after the close, and it gives no revenue or headcount for the business.
What it means for the HR leader
Teams that already buy from Lifted or from Upwork’s enterprise side have concrete questions to put to the account manager, because the employing entity behind a worker can change. The company has not published how the change will be rolled out, so the answers have to come from the vendor.
- Find out who the employer is. Ask whether workers placed through Lifted in your countries will be employed by WorkMotion entities, a third-party EOR or another route, and when any change takes effect.
- Read the contract for the pricing language. The release promises “more consistent pricing.” Ask whether that applies to current agreements or only new ones, and whether EOR fees remain a separate line.
- Check data handling. A new employing entity usually means a new processor of worker payroll and identity data. Confirm which entity holds it and where.
- Map your own country list. The release says more than 30 countries. Compare that to the countries where you have contingent workers today and ask for the list in writing.
- Ask about continuity. If a worker’s employer changes mid-contract, confirm in writing that pay dates, benefits and notice terms carry over unchanged, and who signs the transfer.
For teams that use a separate EOR provider alongside a freelance marketplace, the same list works as a prompt for the next renewal. Ask the marketplace vendor whether it plans to employ workers itself in your countries, and what happens to your current provider’s role if it does.
Source: Upwork Inc.
