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Seedcamp, often described as the European equivalent to Silicon Valley's Y Combinator, has announced a partnership with Facebook to help support socially-oriented startups. The partnership means that Seedcamp participants get product, technical, and design support, as well as early access to beta programs on the Facebook platform.

Seedcamp says that many of its companies are already work closely with the Facebook platform, and the closer partnership will give those startups a boost. As Seedcamp notes on its blog, "Since many of our portfolio companies use parts of Facebook's offerings in their setup, talking to the folks working on these products directly will be a massive help. In addition, an early look at what is coming up will enable Seedcamp companies to be ahead of the market and to play with cool new features first."

European startup incubator Seedcamp has launched a new online platform, Seedsummit.org, aimed at connecting startups with European seed investors. An attempt to create a European version of the incredibly successful AngelList, plans for the website grew out of the Seedsummit conference last year, along with the recognition that Europe needed a "stronger more cohesive network to support enrepreneurs."

The European startup incubator Seedcamp announced today the launch of Seedcamp Johannesburg, the organization's first event in Africa. A Mini Seedcamp will be held in Johannesburg, South Africa on August 11, and applications for the program are now open.

Entrepreneurs from both Europe and Africa can apply to the Mini Seedcamp.

Index Ventures, one of Europe's largest and most prominent venture capital firms, has announced the creation of Index Seed, a program with which it plans to invest more heavily in seed-stage startups throughout Europe, Israel and the Unites States. The formation of such a fund is just what the doctor ordered for young companies in Europe, as they have been largely underfunded in recent years.

If you failed to notice Google's lovely new artwork this morning, today is Earth Day. The purpose of the day in recent years has been to reflect on our energy consumption and to raise awareness on how to better preserve our planet, and startups can play a significant role in that preservation. Seedcamp, arguably the largest and most influential incubator in Europe, is teaming up with IBM and other organizations to host SmartCamp, a series of networking events across the globe designed to uncover the hottest early-stage companies with an environmental focus.

Early stage startups in Europe will be the primary beneficiaries of a new €6 million seed fund just announced by Berlin-based Team Europe Ventures. In the past we've talked about Europe's entrepreneurial woes, most notably a dearth of seed funding due to having a culture largely averse to taking risks financially. This new fund is a good step towards changing that trend and keeping more startups from looking for funding elsewhere.

A settlement for nearly 2,000 years, London is today the most populous greater metropolitan area in Europe with over 13 million residents. Home to popular tourist locations such as Big Ben, The London Eye and Buckingham Palace, London's skyline is unmistakable. While London often serves as the representative bridge from Europe to the United States, it also is the seat of Europe's rapidly expanding entrepreneurial landscape.

The London startup scene saw its first major consumer Internet success in 1998 with LastMinute, a travel site similar to Expdedia that eventually traded publicly on the London Stock Exchange beginning in 2000. UK companies like LastMinute were largely able to avoid the doom and gloom of the dot-com bubble burst at the turn of the century due to the nature of the venture funding scene.

As we reported earlier, 22 teams of European entrepreneurs gathered at Seedcamp in London last week to compete for a chance to win serious investment in their startups. ReadWriteWeb has been following these and other entrepreneurs on our ReadWriteStart channel, so you can get good background there on some of the teams selected to compete.

When we wrote about the 22 finalists selected to pitch at Seedcamp Week 2009, there were several teams whose ideas excited us in particular.

Three of our eight picks have now been announced as Seedcamp winners and will receive €50.000 and three months of advisement and assistance from the European startup accelerator program. Read on for video and details on who gets the cash, who gets to come to America, and what exactly happened this week in London.

Twenty-one entrepreneurial teams have been selected to participate in Seedcamp Week 2009, a London-based, startup-focused event now in its third year. Seedcamp also selectively funds (and subsequently accelerates) around 5 startups each year; to date, 14 teams have received funding.

Read on for a full list of the finalist startups and details on a few of the teams competing for their share of this year's investments.