The Financial Times reports Chinese media and technology group LeEco has secured a $2.4bn strategic investment from a consortium led by a private real estate developer, offering the cash-strapped company a lifeline after breakneck growth left it overextended. Tianjin-based Sunac China Holdings will invest Rmb15bn ($2.2bn) in LeEco’s online video, smart TV, and movie production affiliates, becoming the second-largest shareholder of each. Huaxia Life Insurance and private equity group Le Ran Investment will invest a further Rmb1.8bn. In November LeEco’s billionaire founder and chairman Jia Yueting wrote an open letter to employees acknowledging that his sprawling empire was short of cash following rapid expansion. The group started as a Netflix-like online video platform but has since spread to smartphone and TV hardware, movie production, sports broadcasting and electric cars.