The founder of online retailer jungle.com is counting the cost of the burst bubble in internet stocks.

He has sold his company to retail group Gus for £37 million - a fraction of its earlier valuation.

Steve Bennett, the founder and chief executive of jungle.com, is expected to make around £7 million from the sale of the company which was only launched on the worldwide web last August.

But earlier this year he had hoped to float the group with a valuation of up to £750 million, valuing his stake at up to £250 million.