Lastminute.com, the internet shopping service co-founded by Martha-Lane Fox and Brent Hoberman, made a loss of £9.3m in the last three months, the group said today.

The figure, recorded for the quarter-year to June 30, compares to a loss of £1.1m for the same period last year. However the group, which sells holidays and gifts online, said it had seen a set of "strong" results. It added that the current quarter-year had begun with July being "significantly the strongest" trading month the company had experienced.

Lastminute said its subscriber numbers across Europe had jumped by 50% to 2.1m while the number of items sold over its service grew by 21% to 90,500. The group, which floated on the London stock market in March, has been in the spotlight after its shares, which leapt following the flotation, quickly fell below their issue price leaving investors nursing a big loss.