The growing complexity of web infrastructure is a challenge that many organizations face today. When building and deploying web apps, IT teams must grapple with an array of choices, from selecting which back-end system to use to deciding which framework to code in. According to a recent survey from software developer Infragistics, more than a third (40%) of developers are facing increased customer demands while 39% are working with limited resources, including tight budgets.

There's no silver bullet. But Fred Plais argues that his service, Platform.sh, can help make developers' lives easier by abstracting away much of the underlying web app infrastructure. In support of this vision, Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital, Revaia, and Digital Partners co-led a $140 million Series D round in Platform.sh that closed today with participation from BGV, Eurazeo, Hiinov, Eurozeo, and Partech. It brings Platform.sh's total raised to $187 million, which Plais said is being put toward hiring efforts and "doubling down" on automation.

Prior to co-cofounding Platform.sh with Damien Tournoud and Ori Pekelman, Plais co-launched Infoclic, a French-language search engine, and Commerce Guys, an e-commerce platform powered by the open source project Drupal. Pekelman previously co-founded two consulting companies, Internet Patrol and Constellation Matrix, and was a board member at Commerce Guys. As for Tournoud, he helped to start Commerce Guys and was an IT strategy consultant at Fontaine Consultants.

"I founded Platform.sh in 2015 with my partners, Tournoud and Pekelman, with the goal of simplifying the life of web developers," Plais told TechCrunch in an email interview. "Managing web infrastructure is very time-consuming and we knew we had the solution to making the process more efficient and cost-effective. Seven years later, the cloud has not become simpler. On the contrary, it has grown even more complex due to the emergence of containers, microservices -- not to mention the ever-present need for faster and better performance and the ability to manage more and more apps."