The entrepreneur who made £3.6 million sterling (£4 million) when he sold his online bookshop to WH Smith last June, just five years after setting it up, is about to launch a virtual attack on stockbrokers.

Mr Darryl Mattocks, founder of Bookshop.co.uk. has resurfaced as chairman of Stocknet, a threemonth-old start-up with aggressive plans for the Internet. Stocknet plans to offer a cut-price dealing service from February that will be available only via the Internet and will be one of the cheapest available.

Mr Mattocks is gambling that British investors will follow their United States counterparts in the rush to online dealing. In the US about one-third of transactions are carried out on the Internet and in two years the lower-cost route has forced down average commissions from $30 (£20) to $7.

Mr Simon Wajcenberg, managing director of Stocknet said the company had funding of £1.8 million, a far cry from the £39.7 million that Charles Schwab, the US broker paid three years ago for Sharelink, at the time the largest British discount broker.

Mr Mattocks and his team plan to expand across Europe next year, with the Deutsche Bourse in line after London.