A startup focused on the growing gig economy is making big hiring moves in Chicago.
Upwork, a freelance job marketplace based in Mountain View, Calif., announced it has moved into an office at 224 N. Desplaines Street.
The site has had a presence in Chicago since 2016, when Eric Gilpin, Upwork’s Senior vice president of enterprise joined the team. The office has now grown to 23 employees. Upwork said it has plans to add another 50 jobs in Chicago by the end of the year, have 100 new employees in Chicago by the end of 2018, and plans to continue that growth into 2019. They will primarily be hiring for enterprise sales jobs.
Gilpin, who previously worked with Career Builder's Chicago office for over a decade, will lead the Chicago office.
“By expanding into Chicago, Upwork is not only investing in the growth of the enterprise team, but also in its belief that freelancers will power the enterprise of the future,” said Gilpin in a statement.
“Rapidly becoming one of the fastest growing innovation hubs outside of Silicon Valley, Chicago has proven to be an incredible market for talent," he added. "We are incredibly excited about this new endeavor and look forward to aggressively growing our team.”
Upwork, which was founded in 2003 and rebranded from Elance-oDesk in 2015, said 20 percent of Fortune 500 companies, as well as notable ventures such as Airbnb and Dropbox, use their platform to find and engage freelancers. Companies can post freelance jobs to the site, and Upwork will send the company a short list of the freelancers that best fit their needs. Freelancers can use the site to send and receive digital work and message a company about jobs and payment.
The company also has offices in San Francisco and Oslo, Norway, with approximately 300 employees (and hundreds of freelancers working on Upwork projects) worldwide. Upwork has raised over $168 million in venture funding.
