Since the internet bubble burst at the start of the millennium, German media company Bertelsmann has been more preoccupied with getting its house in order than pursuing and proclaiming the next big thing in Web 2.0, as some rivals have.

This reticence makes it tempting to look at its year-old venture fund to invest in digital start-ups as a map of chances that the television-to-books group might, in other times, have pursued in grander style – or may yet do so, as its focus on restructuring fades.