Chinese internet media giant LeEco has raised US$1.08bn in an initial fundraising round for its electric sportscar project that aims to rival Tesla Motors.
According to the reports, funding for its first car is coming from Legend Holdings Corp., Yingda Capital Management Co. and China Minsheng Trust, according to the company.
The funding follows an announcement in August that LeEco plans to invest 12 billion yuan in an electric car factory in Zhejiang province’s Deqing county, which is slated to be producing 400,000 electric cars annually by 2018.
The funding will go into the development of its own sports car under the LeSEE brand, and not into its partnership with U.S.-based electric vehicle startup Faraday Future.
LeEco also has connections to Atieva, an autonomous electric car startup from the US. In February this year, LeEco signed an MOU with Aston Martin to develop and produce an all-electric Aston Martin RapidE.
