Toptal is a global remote company that provides freelancer and professional services in various sectors. The company was last valued at $3.6 billion. The company, which has no headquarters, reports a network of more than 30,000 freelancers worldwide and more than 600 employees.
History Taso Du Val and Breanden Beneschott founded the company in 2010. Du Val was previously an engineer at Fotolog and Slide.com while Beneschott was an undergraduate at Princeton University. The name stands for "top talent", and it began as a virtual company with no dedicated offices.
Toptal had more than $1 million in revenue when Beneschott graduated from Princeton. The co-founders moved to Budapest, Hungary, to access software developers with fewer employment options than in the United States. During the company's early years, the founders lived in various countries while building the initial freelance developer network.
In 2015, it expanded to include freelance design. In 2016, it acquired the freelancer platform, Skillbridge, which offered freelance accountants, statisticians, and consultants in market research, financial modeling, and due diligence. In 2017, the company launched a specialized category, or "vertical", for software engineers and designers in the automotive industry. It also launched a vertical for blockchain engineers in February 2018. In 2024, Toptal acquired Growth Collective, a freelancing platform.
Freelancer sourcing The firm developed personality, language, and skills testing to screen candidates remotely, and accepts the top 3% of several thousand monthly applicants. The company's vetting process includes multiple stages, such as interviews and completion of a test project, among other steps. The firm matches business engagements with developers from its network and brokers the terms of each job.
Toptal's network currently includes 30,000 freelancers, some of whom have experience at companies such as Google, Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, Apple, OpenAI, Anthropic, DeepMind, and Palantir.
Business model Toptal connects clients with pre-vetted freelance professionals and subject matter experts across software development, design, finance, and consulting. The company generates revenue by charging clients for the freelancer's services, taking a margin on the transaction. Toptal also offers services through specialized teams that support client projects in sectors such as technology services, and management consulting.
The company's clients include J.P. Morgan, Pfizer, Airbnb, and Zendesk.
Funding Toptal accepted a $1.4 million seed round of financing from Andreessen Horowitz and angel investors, including Quora founder Adam D'Angelo. The company is said not to have raised additional funds since its seed round because it has been profitable. In 2015 and 2016, Toptal's annual revenue was $80 million and $100 million, respectively. By 2021, Toptal's annual revenue surpassed $200 million, and it was conservatively valued at $3.6 billion.
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