Nov 4 (Reuters) - HashiCorp Inc filed for a U.S. initial public offering on Thursday, seeking to capitalize on investor appetite for software firms benefiting from a pandemic-induced digital shift.

The company firm is aiming for a valuation of nearly $10 billion, said a person familiar with the matter.

Hashicorp began as an open-source project and provides cloud-based software to customers such as Dutch lender ABN AMRO and infrastructure management for Daimler-owned car marker Mercedes-Benz.

The company was co-founded in 2012 by Mitchell Hashimoto and Armon Dadgar, who met at the University of Washington in 2008. They had worked together on a research project to make cloud technologies, which were then being developed by Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft Corp, available to scientists.

HashiCorp, whose investors include Mayfield, Franklin Templeton and T Rowe Price, is the latest company trying to take advantage of strong investor demand for high-growth tech stocks.

Software development platform GitLab Inc was valued at nearly $15 billion in its Nasdaq debut last month, while restaurant software provider Toast Inc fetched a valuation of nearly $33 billion in September.

Hashicorp will list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "HCP".

Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs & Co, J.P. Morgan, Bofa Securities and Citigroup are lead underwriters on the offering. (Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Soni)