Upwork, the Nasdaq-listed online work marketplace, has bought WorkMotion, a Berlin company that employs staff in other countries on behalf of businesses that have no local entity there. The purchase was made through Lifted, Upwork's wholly owned subsidiary for enterprise contingent workforce services. Upwork announced it on November 2, 2026, alongside its third-quarter results, and the deal had already closed on October 30.
Upwork, Lifted and WorkMotion did not announce the price, and WorkMotion said financial terms were not being disclosed. Upwork's quarterly report to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, filed the same day, stated that Lifted bought all of WorkMotion Software GmbH for cash of approximately $129.7 million, paid from cash on hand. Upwork also recorded $5.7 million of deal-related legal, accounting and advisory costs in the third quarter.
WorkMotion will stay an independent German company based in Berlin, with its own brand and platform. Co-founder and chief executive Felix Steffens and the rest of its leadership team will stay, and customers keep their existing contracts, prices and contacts, WorkMotion said.
What WorkMotion built
WorkMotion was founded in Berlin in 2020. Startbase named Carsten Lebtig, Karim Zaghlou and Felix Steffens as its founders when it raised money in 2021. The company is an employer of record, or EOR: through its own local entities it signs employment contracts, runs payroll and handles local labour law for staff that its clients hire abroad. It also manages and pays international contractors and covers the employee lifecycle from onboarding to offboarding, for a flat monthly fee per employee.
The company says it owns its legal entities rather than relying on third parties. Upwork and Lifted said WorkMotion has owned entities in more than 30 countries; WorkMotion's website advertises hiring in more than 160 countries, a figure that appears to include partner coverage. The website says more than 1,000 customers use the service, with case studies from companies such as Parloa and Heyflow.
WorkMotion has focused on small and mid-sized businesses in Europe and says it wants to become the region's leading EOR provider. On Upwork's earnings call, chief financial officer Erica Gessert said the business was growing about 20% a year in revenue.
“With the addition of WorkMotion, we are leapfrogging towards that future, dramatically accelerating our roadmap of delivering employment solutions to our customers on a global scale.”
Why Upwork is buying
Lifted helps large companies find, contract, manage and pay freelancers and other contingent staff. It already offered contractor and agent-of-record services in more than 180 countries, and it bought Ascen in August 2025 for $40.8 million to provide direct employment in the US and Canada, according to the 10-Q. Elsewhere it delivered EOR through third-party partners. WorkMotion gives it its own employment entities in more than 30 countries.
Upwork chief executive Hayden Brown said on the call that Lifted had planned to set up some of these entities itself over the next one to two years, and that the deal brought them in at once along with a business and team. She said the purchase should help Lifted win more deals and lower its cost to serve customers. Ernesto Lamaina, Lifted's general manager, said enterprises do not want to manage a patchwork of vendors with different service levels and pricing in every country where they hire.
The deal is Lifted's third acquisition in about 16 months. It bought Bubty in June 2025 for $20.4 million, according to the 10-Q.
The founders and the funding
WorkMotion raised a $24 million Series A in August 2021, led by Activant Capital with XAnge and angel investor Carsten Thoma, Startbase reported. Earlier backers Picus Capital, Klarna co-founder Victor Jacobsson and Carsten Maschmeyer also took part. At the time the company had 60 staff and 170 client companies with 500 remote employees between them.
In June 2022 it raised a $50 million Series B led by Canaan, with Activant Capital, XAnge, Picus Capital, Heliad Equity Partners and GR Capital, according to The SaaS News. Those two rounds add up to $74 million; deutsche-startups.de, which first reported the price from Upwork's filing, gave a lower total for the company's funding.
What it means for Upwork
Upwork reported third-quarter revenue of $185.6 million and net income of $31.8 million. Gessert said WorkMotion would add about $4 million of revenue in the fourth quarter, covering only a couple of months of ownership, and Upwork's fourth-quarter revenue guidance of $169 million to $177 million includes the business. She expects Lifted's growing share of revenue and the costs of integrating WorkMotion to reduce Upwork's 2027 adjusted EBITDA margin by about three to four percentage points.
WorkMotion plans to add more owned entities around the world over the next two years and to invest in its platform, while continuing to serve its small and mid-market customers. Customer data will stay in the EU under the existing data protection arrangements, the company said.
The EOR market is crowded. WorkMotion's own blog compares it with Deel, Remote, Oyster, Papaya Global, Rippling and Gusto. Brown said Upwork wants Lifted to be the single partner enterprises use for all of their contingent workers, wherever they are and whatever their contract type.
