Elance is a company.
Elance has raised $83.0M across 4 funding rounds.
Key people at Elance.
Elance has raised $83.0M in total across 4 funding rounds.
Elance has raised $83.0M in total across 4 funding rounds.
Elance's investors include Canvas Ventures, Drive Capital, Kleiner Perkins.
Elance was a pioneering online freelancing marketplace founded in 1998, focused on connecting employers with freelancers, particularly in web development and computing services.[1][3][4] It merged with oDesk in 2013 to form Elance-oDesk, which rebranded as Upwork in 2015, evolving into a dominant platform serving millions of users worldwide with tools for hiring, collaboration, and payments across diverse professional services.[1][2][3] Upwork now targets businesses and freelancers globally, solving remote talent access challenges amid the gig economy boom, with reported growth to 14 million users and $1 billion in annual billings by 2017, and recognition as a TIME100 Most Influential Company in 2022.[1][2]
Elance originated in 1998 when MIT graduate Beerud (or Bernard) Sheth and Wall Street veteran Srini Anumolu founded the company in a two-bedroom apartment in Jersey City, New Jersey.[1][3][4][5] Aiming to create an online marketplace for technical talent like web developers, they launched the Elance Small Business Marketplace as their first product and relocated 22 employees to Sunnyvale, California, in Silicon Valley by late 1999.[1][5] The idea emerged from recognizing inefficiencies in traditional hiring, enabling remote connections between employers and skilled workers.[4]
Pivotal moments included steady growth until the 2013 merger with oDesk—founded in 2003 by Odysseas Tsatalos and Stratis Karamanlakis to facilitate remote collaboration across borders—which combined their platforms into Elance-oDesk with ~$750 million in annual billings.[1][3][4] This led to the 2015 Upwork rebrand under CEOs like Stephane Kasriel, marking early traction through platform integration and surpassing $1 billion in gross services volume (GSV).[2][6]
Elance rode the early internet wave of digitizing labor markets, predating the gig economy explosion by connecting dispersed talent when remote work was nascent, and its merger amplified this amid cloud computing and broadband proliferation.[1][3][4] Timing was ideal as globalization and tech outsourcing surged in the 2000s, with market forces like the 2020 pandemic boosting U.S. freelancing to 36% of the workforce—a 22% rise since 2019—favoring platforms like Upwork.[2]
It influenced the ecosystem by normalizing online freelancing, spawning the "Upwork Mafia" of alumni founding ventures, and setting standards for remote tools that competitors emulate, while adapting to AI trends via acquisitions.[8][9]
Upwork, born from Elance's vision, stands poised for expansion in an AI-augmented gig economy, with integrations like Headroom signaling deeper automation in matching and collaboration.[8] Trends like hybrid work persistence and freelance growth will propel it, potentially evolving influence through enterprise AI tools and global regulatory adaptations for remote labor. As the original connector of digital talent, its trajectory ties back to solving hiring friction at scale, positioning it as an enduring marketplace leader.
Key people at Elance.
Elance has raised $83.0M across 4 funding rounds. Most recently, it raised $16.0M Venture Round in January 2012.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 1, 2012 | $16.0M Venture Round | Canvas Ventures, Drive Capital, Kleiner Perkins | |
| Aug 1, 2004 | $10.0M Series E | Canvas Ventures, Drive Capital, Kleiner Perkins | |
| Mar 1, 2003 | $7.0M Venture Round | Canvas Ventures, Drive Capital, Kleiner Perkins | |
| Sep 1, 2000 | $50.0M Series B | Drive Capital, Kleiner Perkins |
