Case Study: Upwork achieves a seamless IPO equity transition with Shareworks by Morgan Stanley

How Upwork navigated their IPO in collaboration with Shareworks by Morgan Stanley

Upwork, the global freelancing platform with workers in 180 countries, needed an equity administration solution that could support its growth from private to public. While still private, the company was relying on a tool that didn’t support private companies, forcing the team to manage a cap table in Excel and create manual reports, which raised concerns about data accuracy. Upwork chose Shareworks by Morgan Stanley for equity administration and participant experience.

Shareworks by Morgan Stanley enabled a seamless IPO transition in 2018, with no disruption to employees’ equity experience as Upwork moved from options to RSUs and launched an ESPP. The platform now supports employee stock administration end to end, including grants, reporting, mobile access, trades, and pre-clearance, and it helped Upwork achieve strong employee adoption with 100% workforce eligibility and over 90% ESPP enrollment. Upwork also reported full confidence in the accuracy of its data and praised Shareworks for acting like an extension of its team.

Upwork

Junko Swain

Chief Accounting Officer