Ride-hailing in China is heating up, and money is intensifying the competition.

Yidao Yongche, one of China's smaller ride-hailing apps just got a huge investment of $700 million to take on larger players like Uber and market leader Didi Kuaidi.

Its backer, LeTV, said on Tuesday it bought 70% of the firm and will become its controlling shareholder, according to China Daily.

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The funding elevates Yidao to "unicorn" status — an upper crust of $1 billion-plus startups that have managed to reach a billion in value.

LeTV, also known as Leshi Internet Information & Technology, is a Beijing-headquartered firm that does Hulu-like streaming video and produces Android phones. Earlier this year, rumors emerged of its interest in investing in Uber to gain control of the Chinese ride market, but LeTV denied this.

Yidao Yongche counts among its backers, the government of Singapore, Qualcomm Ventures and China-based venture firm CBC Capital.

According to analyst firm China Internet Watch, Yidao is the third player in China's private car hailing market, with 8.4% of the market, behind Uber with 10.9%. Didi Kuaidi has the lion's share of 78.3%.

LeTV has been keen on the automotive space for a while. At the beginning of this year, it announced it was starting to build electric cars. Given the company's video background, the eventual LeTV car will be Internet-connected and capable of running apps and content, naturally.

It isn't abandoning its bread and butter trade. LeTV continues to aggressively invest in expanding its foothold in the video market both in the mainland and in Hong Kong, signing large deals with major TV content providers and movie studios.