Workrise
Vertical labor marketplace matching vetted workers to oil and gas job sites.
On the record
Checkpoint: Window for CEO Hollison to produce a new funding round or IPO filing since taking over in March 2024
The call
Workrise runs a real oil and gas labor business but just retreated from diversification and sits on a five-year-old valuation with no fresh money behind it.
Workrise connects oil and gas companies with vetted workers through a specialized hiring platform, handling everything from worker screening to payroll and compliance. It has built real connections with thousands of workers and local energy companies, which is hard for new entrants to copy fast, but larger staffing firms like Brunel or software companies like SAP could muscle in if they wanted to. The company abandoned plans to expand into other industries and went back to oil and gas only in 2025, which suggests earlier growth ideas did not work out. The valuation has not changed in over five years, and there is no recent investor funding round, both red flags that something may be stuck.
Why
01
AI pressure: None apparent. AI tools speed up matching, compliance checks and invoicing but can't supply certified field labor or safety credentials. Could AI do the core job? Unlikely.
02
Bigger players: Brunel and SAP Fieldglass. Bigger staffing and VMS players could extend into oil and gas vertical staffing with no structural block stopping them. Could a giant copy it? Yes, easily.
03
What protects it. Vetted 10,000+ worker network plus basin-level operator relationships and embedded compliance and payroll rails.
What would change this call
Whether Workrise announces a new priced funding round or IPO filing by mid-2027. Would show if the stalled $2.9B valuation reflects renewed investor confidence or continued stagnation.
Whether the Shell U-lateral drilling-tech licensing deal becomes a disclosed, growing revenue line. Would show if Workrise is escaping thin staffing margins or if the deal stays a one-off press release.
Outcome of the NLRB case Rusco v. Workrise (28-CA-292156). Would show whether labor practices create added legal or cost exposure for the company.
Whether the Shell U-lateral drilling-tech licensing deal becomes a disclosed, growing revenue line. Would show if Workrise is escaping thin staffing margins or if the deal stays a one-off press release.
Outcome of the NLRB case Rusco v. Workrise (28-CA-292156). Would show whether labor practices create added legal or cost exposure for the company.
Key numbers
- $2.9B valuation, unchanged since May 2021 Series E
- Headcount flat around 950-980 for three years
- Shell U-lateral drilling tech licensing deal signed
Named risks
- Valuation frozen at $2.9B since May 2021 with no confirmed new funding round through mid-2026.
- Renewed sole focus on oil and gas after abandoning diversification increases commodity-price cyclicality.
- Active NLRB labor case (28-CA-292156) against subsidiary Rusco Operating with filings as recent as November 2025.
- 2025 rebrand back to RigUp creates market and identity confusion with two live domains (workrise.com and rigup.com).
- Post-2022 revenue figures conflict wildly across third-party sources, undermining trend visibility.
Rivals, as read in July 2026
| Rival | Direction | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Brunel | gaining on | Publicly traded, €1.2B revenue in 2022 up 31%, far larger scale than Workrise's stalled $2.9B mark |
| SAP Fieldglass | contesting | Enterprise VMS with no structural barrier to entering Workrise's oil and gas niche as of 2023 reporting |
| Rigzone, Petroplan, Surestaff | contesting | Traditional staffing sites lack Workrise's integrated payroll and compliance layer, per 2023 research |
Questions people ask
- Is Workrise profitable in 2026?
- No profitability figures have been disclosed. Workrise (now RigUp) last reported gross revenue estimates around $900M in 2020 and $1.1B in 2021 (analyst estimate), but no audited profit data exists, and the company remains private with a valuation frozen at $2.9B since May 2021.
- Who owns Workrise?
- Workrise is privately held, backed by venture and growth investors including Founders Fund, a16z, Baillie Gifford, Franklin Templeton, Moore Strategic Ventures, 137 Ventures, and Brookfield Growth Partners from its May 20, 2021 Series E round at a $2.9B valuation. There is no public stock and no IPO as of 2026.
- Could AI replace Workrise's business?
- Unlikely. Workrise's moat is a vetted network of 10,000+ field workers with safety/HSE certifications and operator relationships, which AI cannot replicate. AI is being absorbed into its own product as an 'AI-Powered Insights' assistant for matching and reporting, not as a replacement for physical labor supply.
- Who is Workrise's biggest competitor?
- Brunel, a publicly traded (Amsterdam) global oil and gas staffing firm reporting €1.2B revenue in 2022 (up 31%), and SAP Fieldglass, a large enterprise vendor-management platform with no structural barrier to entering Workrise's niche, are its main larger-scale rivals as of 2023-2026 reporting.
- Has Workrise had layoffs?
- Yes. Workrise cut roughly 25% of corporate staff in 2020 during the COVID oil price crash, and reportedly cut about 450 employees in April 2022 while exiting non-core verticals like construction and defense, according to TechCrunch reporting dated April 5, 2022.
- Why did Workrise change its name back to RigUp?
- On September 4, 2025, Workrise rebranded back to its original name, RigUp, explicitly recommitting to oil and gas after having diversified into construction, defense, wind and solar in 2021, verticals it had already exited by 2022, per the company's own blog announcement.
Timeline
- 2025-11NLRB case 28-CA-292156 against Workrise subsidiary Rusco Operating shows active filings
- 2025-09-04Workrise rebrands back to RigUp, recommits to oil and gas focus
- 2025-06-16Workrise licenses Shell's U-lateral drilling technology for per-well operator licensing
- 2024-03-07Mick Hollison named CEO of Workrise
- 2022-04Reported layoff of roughly 450 employees tied to exiting non-core verticals
- 2022-02Mike Witte becomes CEO; Xuan Yong later becomes Executive Chairman in December 2022
- 2021-05-20Series E raises $300M at $2.9B valuation, led by Baillie Gifford
- 2021-02-01RigUp rebrands to Workrise to reflect multi-vertical expansion
- 2019-10Series D raises $300M led by a16z at roughly $1.9B valuation
- 2014Company founded as RigUp by Xuan Yong and Michael Witte
Revision history
29 July 2026
First assessed. Losing its protection. The text above is fixed as of this date and is not edited afterwards.
In the same band
Sources
- Report: Workrise Business Breakdown & Founding Story (2023-06-28)
- RigUp Announces New Corporate Brand, Workrise (2021-02-01)
- Workrise is Now RigUp (2025-09-04)
- Austin unicorn Workrise laid off a number of employees (2022-04-05)
- Workrise, once known as RigUp, raises $300M at a $2.9B valuation (2021-05-20)
- Valuation, Funding Rounds & Stock Price
- Workrise revenue, valuation & funding (2025-09-03)
- Workrise raises $300 million in Series E Funding
- Products, Competitors, Financials... (2025-06-16)
- Workrise Number of Employees 2026 (2026-07)
- Workrise Names Mick Hollison as Next CEO (2024-03-07)
- Rusco Operating, LLC... NLRB case (2026-01-05)