New York, May 15 (IANS): US-based Cloud infrastructure provider DigitalOcean has closed a $50 million Series C funding round led by existing investors Access Industries Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).

The funding follows the $320 million debt financing in February and brings DigitalOcean's equity valuation to $1.15 billion, the company said on Thursday.

"We are delighted to extend our partnership with Access and a16z and see this capital as adding strength to our balance sheet enabling us to better serve our customers' demand for our platform, especially during COVID-19 where we are seeing an acceleration of businesses transitioning to the cloud," Yancey Spruill, CEO at DigitalOcean, said in a statement.

"We are now freed up to focus on accelerating revenue growth, transitioning to free cash flow profitability in 2020 and positioning our company ultimately to be a public company."

Founded in 2012, DigitalOcean is a high-growth business with $300M in annual recurring revenue, serving more than 500,000 customers globally, with nearly two-thirds located outside the US.

The company has created a strong niche in the $200 billion cloud market by catering to developers, entrepreneurs and small businesses who opt to use DigitalOcean's infrastructure.

"We are excited about this investment to support DigitalOcean as it enters its next phase of significant growth," said Pueo Keffer, Managing Director at Access Industries.

"We remain extremely impressed with the company and its management and believe that both are well positioned to transform the cloud space for developers and SMBs in the years ahead," he added.