Toronto-based freelancer online marketplace Scriptlance has been acquired by Freelancer.com, the firms announced today.
Scriptlance is the fifth-largest freelance marketplace in the world with more than 360,000 users, according to the site. Its members will be moved to the Freelancer.com platform immediately, with a free membership offering to get started on the new site. Employers who have transacted on Scriptlance will enjoy six months of a free premium membership. Freelancers will get a free 30-day standard membership.
This morning, the Scriptlance.com Web site was updated with a Freelancer.com banner proclaiming “we just got bigger” and linking to the Freelancer.com blog. Other sections of the Web site have been updated saying it is now part of Freelancer.com’s network of more than 4 million professional users worldwide.
Scriptlance was incorporated in 2001 under the name R3N3 International Inc. by a 20-year-old technology entrepreneur.
Scriptlance founder and CEO René Trescases will not be staying on with Freelancer.com after the acquisition, but moving on to other things, reports TechCrunch. Other Scriptlance employees, including some located in India, will be transitioned over.
“Today we launch in Canada, and we couldn’t think of a better way to announce this than by buying on of Canada’s top technology Web sites,” said Freelancer.com CEO Matt Barrie in a statement to TechCrunch.
Freelancer.com also acquires a crowdfunding platform developed by Trescases, which will be rolled into its existing crowdfunding business.
Scriptlance offers freelance job postings to computer programmers, designers, marketers, and writers. Jobs range from Javascript programing for a student Web portal to setting up Facebook pages. It also allows employers to host crowd competitions to have completed designs or projects submitted, and the winning project receives a cash prize.
Financial terms of the acquisition aren’t being disclosed. Freelancer.com claims it now has more than two and half times more users than its nearest competitor, at 4 million.
With the acquisition, the new local Canadian domain Freelancer.ca is now online. The site already has 100,000 Canadian users, it claims.