What Upwork’s Bubty Acquisition and Visa Reform Mean for Global Talent
In episode 859 of the HRchat Podcast, I sat down with Pavel Shynkarenko, founder of Mellow, to unpack some major shifts shaping the freelance economy and the global world of work.
Pavel is a veteran in HR and financial technologies with more than 20 years of experience. Through Mellow, he’s building an HR platform that provides freelancers with benefits such as tax and social security support, benefits that typically only full-time employees receive. It’s part of a growing trend to make freelance work more secure, sustainable and connected.
Our conversation explored everything from Upwork’s acquisition of Bubty to the potential impact of the H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act in the U.S., and what these developments signal for the future of flexible workforce management worldwide.
Visa Reform and the Future of Global Work
We began by discussing the proposed H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act, which aims to prevent large-scale outsourcing and protect U.S. workers by tightening visa regulations. According to a recent article from The Financial Express, the bill would:
- Impose stricter wage, recruitment and attestation obligations on employers seeking H-1B or L-1 workers.
- Require job postings for H-1B roles to be published on a searchable site maintained by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), making the process more transparent.
- Limit extensions of H-1B petitions (currently valid up to 3 years, extendable to 6) under certain conditions.
Prioritise H-1B allocations for highly educated STEM professionals and raise the bar for what constitutes a “specialty occupation” (requiring at least a bachelor’s degree or higher). - Give the DOL enhanced enforcement powers to monitor compliance and displace companies that import large numbers of H-1B or L-1 workers to outsource American jobs.
- Mark a broader push by U.S. lawmakers to scrutinise big tech and other companies that rely heavily on H-1B and L-1 visas, including letters sent to major firms such as Amazon, Google and Meta.
In our podcast discussion, Pavel noted that while the goal of the bill is to ensure fairness in hiring practices, it could have significant ripple effects across global talent markets. “These reforms could push businesses to rethink how they access global talent,” he said. “Some may turn more aggressively to freelance and EOR (Employer of Record) solutions as they navigate increased scrutiny.”
EOR Expansion and Market Consolidation
The Employer of Record (EOR) market has boomed in recent years as companies seek compliant ways to hire internationally. Pavel predicts that visa reform in the U.S. could lead to fewer but larger EOR vendors as regulatory complexity rises and the cost of compliance increases. “We’ll likely see consolidation,” he explained. “The compliance burden will favour platforms that can scale infrastructure and legal coverage globally.”
That said, the Financial Express article suggests that other regions might follow the U.S. lead in terms of tightening cross-border work policies. Europe, for example, may begin to impose stricter regulations on how companies engage foreign contractors or deploy talent across borders, as the risk of regulatory scrutiny becomes a global phenomenon.
Simplifying the Gig Economy
One of the biggest pain points many organisations face is managing vendors and freelancers in an increasingly fragmented gig economy. Platforms like Bubty and now Mellow aim to make that easier by wrapping multiple services into one offering.
“The biggest barrier for many organisations isn’t the willingness to work with freelancers, it’s the operational friction,” Pavel said. “Payments, tax compliance, benefits, contracts, it all adds up. Platforms like Mellow simplify that complexity while improving the experience for both the company and the individual.”
He sees automation and human support as twin engines for progress: “Automation reduces errors and delays, but the human element ensures freelancers feel valued and protected.”
Platform Risk and the Push for Mega-Products
The acquisition of Bubty by Upwork is part of a wider push among large platforms to become end-to-end workforce ecosystems, bundling talent management, payments, compliance and analytics into one product.
But as Pavel cautioned, “The challenge for Upwork and others is scalability without losing the niche flexibility that made them successful,” he said. “When you go too big, you risk flattening the unique needs of smaller clients and freelancers.”
Given the upcoming visa reforms, platforms that aim to serve global workforces will need to invest heavily in compliance infrastructure, not just talent matching. The Financial Express article underscores this: companies must “carefully assess compliance risks, maintain significant documentation, and ensure transparent working conditions” in light of legislative tightening. This means that for platforms offering global contractor services, success won’t just be about growth, it will also depend on robust governance and risk management.
What’s Next for Mellow
Looking ahead, Mellow is focused on expanding its footprint in Europe and North America, helping freelancers gain access to fairer benefits and protections. “Our goal is to give independent workers the same level of financial and social-security confidence that employees have,” Pavel said.
As distributed work continues to grow, platforms like Mellow could become the infrastructure layer for the freelance economy, bridging the gap between independence and stability.
Final Thoughts
Our conversation underscored how the future of work isn’t about “gig vs employee”, it’s about building systems that make every type of work viable, compliant and human-centric. Whether through smarter regulation, more agile platforms or inclusive policies, the next phase of workforce innovation will depend on connecting flexibility with fairness.
Listen to the full episode: HRchat Podcast – The Future of the Freelance Workforce with Pavel Shynkarenko, Founder of Mellow.
Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and your favourite podcast apps.