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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.

Over the last few months, as data has been released by the National Venture Capital Association, we have spoken about how the venture capital industry struggled in 2009. Though things appear to be returning to normal, 2009 was still a tough year for both VC investments and fund raising. Investor Seth Levine offered his opinion Monday on where he thinks the industry is headed and raised some interesting points on how VC firms will be funded in the future - an issue which could impact the way startups get funding.

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.

One the interesting differences for startups on the east coast compared to the west coast is how much more compact the east coast is. For Silicon Valley, the nearest major metro cities are 400 to 800 miles away, which makes the San Francisco area much more secluded. Boston, New York, Washington D.C. and Baltimore are all within a short drive of each other, which makes the sharing of resources, talent pools and events much easier that on the west coast. Philadelphia, conveniently located between Washington D.C. and New York, is home to DreamIt Ventures, which is now accepting applications for its 2010 summer accelerator class.

Because today's startup generally requires significantly less seed capital to function, the legal contracts once required for large-scale deals are no longer appropriate. Rather than forcing startups to draft lengthy legal documents, one attorney is offering an invaluable resource to entrepreneurs. Best known as the Fenwick and West attorney responsible for Twitter, Ted Wang recently released a series of templates to help startup companies navigate the difficult task of investment financing.

One of the most difficult parts of starting a startup for any entrepreneur is finding that small bit of seed capital to get things going. As evidenced by small seed funds like Y Combinator, a little can go a long way for startup entrepreneurs, but raising that chunk of change to get started can be tricky. Luckily, there are a number of different roads you can take to get from concept to Series A. Below is a list of 13 seed funding options for startup entrepreneurs.