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H-Farm is one of the most interesting projects in the italian and european startup scene. As the name suggests, it is a real farm located in the middle of the venetian country near Treviso where people every day are trying to redefine the traditional incubation process.

Founded in 2005 by Riccardo Donadon and Maurizio Rossi, H-Farm has now more than 15 startups, and some very successful ones too: Zooppa is the best example.

The company already has offices in Treviso, Seattle and Mumbay. The Old Truman Brewery complex located around Brick Lane, very close to the financial district, will host their new Uk office. This addition will help them create that international incubator they are aspiring to.

Here is how Riccardo Donadon, founding partner, explains it to us: “H-Farm objective is to build an international incubation platform that can take advantage of the different economic opportunities and move ideas and business around the world with minimal effort.
With this in mind, the new UK offices are a necessary step that will allow us to offer our startups a unique european visibility and market presence.”

All their services can now be enjoyed by UK-startups, we are talking about capital resources and a full range of of services and logistics to enable rapid growth. Of course the classic incubation services are offered too: office space and facilities, support for marketing, financial advice, human resources, legal, accounting and business development. On top of that they add strategy advice, branding and corporate structure. Read their mini press release.

Lokku Labs, the London-based developer of Nestoria, a property search engine working with over 50 partners across 4 European countries, has launched a new property search and recommendation engine across Europe.

Where can I live? is going live in several European cities, starting with Madrid, Barcelona, Rome, Milan, Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich. The sites are all live and built on top of the free Nestoria APIs and of the open maps by OpenStreetMap.

The system is pretty easy: you insert your budget, your desired destination (i.e. office) and other behavioral criteria and Nestoria will work the magic on its database providing you with suggestions about the most indicated areas and buildings to live in.

Average house prices are updated monthly to make sure you get the most accurate information. Travel time is calculated only between stations, not door-to-door, so there might me some minor errors.

Last week I attended the Europas award ceremony in London. The event was hosted by Mike Butcher of TechCrunch Europe, and I must say was really interesting.
I still haven’t had time to write my proper thoughts on it, but I will soon. In the meanwhile I’ll post what others think of the european startup scene after the event.

• Techcrunch Europas Awards: And the winner is..

on Nick Point

• The European startup scene is building stronger bonds

on Laurent Pierssens

• Highlights of TechCrunch’s Europas

on Computer Weekly

• The Europas: Winners, Losers & Wine

on Bitch Buzz

• TechCrunch Europas: Awards for everybody and a kicker for the next 12 months

on Inma Martinez

• TechCrunch hails European tech stars

on Smarta

• The Europas: The Winners Champagne

on Fhoke

• Techcrunch europas rawked!

on Random Mel

• TechCrunch Europas: Optimisim & Creative Destruction Alive and Well

on Dimen Designs

• and the official winners post from TechCrunch Europe.

Technology is moving faster than ever. We are using and developing ourselves things that we couldn’t even immagine a few years ago. I think augmented reality will be the next big thing.

You may have already heard the “augmented reality” term, but just to be sure you know what I’m talking about here is how Wikipedia defines it:

Augmented reality (AR) is a field of computer research which deals with the combination of real-world and computer-generated data (virtual reality), where computer graphics objects are blended into real footage in real time.

We are starting to see the first augmented reality phone applications for Android and Iphone, and now London-based Accrossair announced a game-changing iPhone application.

Nearest Tube, as you may guess by its name, will let you see in real time the closest London tube station. It is really very easy to use: when you load the app, holding it flat, all 13 lines of the London underground are displayed in coloured arrows. By tilting the phone upwards, you will see the nearest stations: what direction they are in relation to your location, how many kilometres and miles away they are and what tube lines they are on.

Check out a demo video (careful with the volume, this video is extremely loud):

The application is ready and awaiting approval from the App Store. To use the app you will need an iPhone 3GS.

If you already know what SeedCamp is and can’t wait to apply, please do so right here.

Seedcamp Week will be held from 21^st to 25^th September at UCL in central London. It is a weeklong programme that connects 20 early stage web tech startups with over 400 highly experienced and sought after entrepreneurs, investors, marketers, product and developer experts.  Along with current board members Saul Klein and Reshma Sohoni, the chosen teams will also have access to Seedcamp’s recently appointed board members who have been selected for their broad range of entrepreneurial experience and international background in order to help Seedcamp deliver its mission to build a world-class, sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Just to name a few:

• Fred Destin, partner at Atlas Ventures
• Charles Grimsdale, co-founder of Eden Ventures
• Alex Hoye, co-founder of GoIndustry plc
• Christoph Maire, Head of Maps & Explore Unit, Nokia Services
• Dave McClure, Founders Fund
• Richard Moross, founder and CEO, Moo.com

The week will include interactive panel discussions, master classes and several informal 1:1 sessions. Teams will gain invaluable insight and a solid foundation to help kick-start a viable business in Europe today.

“The beauty of Seedcamp is that a start-up can fill his or her Rolodex in one day with quality business contacts that it would normally take five years to build.  We want to help entrepreneurs experience the whole rainbow, not just the pot of gold at the end.” Reshma Sohoni said.

At the end of the week Seedcamp will invest up to €50K each in 5 teams for a small equity stake (5%-10%). That’s enough money to move to London for 3 months and start building the product and the company. It’s not just work: weekly dinners, topical lunches, conferences, and continued mentorship, culminating in further Demo and Investor Days will make the stay invaluable as well as unforgettable. A trip to the Valley is also planned.

You can check the highlights of the 2007/2008 editions and follow Seedcamp on Twitter. If you missed the application link, here it is.

You may have noticed the banner on our sidebar, that’s because we are official media partners for Future Of Web Applications London 2009.

FOWA is one of the major conferences in the european tech scene, and each years features inspiring talks from the most influential people in the industry. This year looks promising as always.

If you’d like to get the feeling, you can watch video recordings of previous editions. Inspiring stuff.

To celebrate summer finally hitting the UK, Carsonified are having an absolute scorcher of a sale!

10 seats at 50% off (save £167.50)
20 seats at 25% off (save £83.75)
30 seats at 10% off (save £33.50)

If youre not quick enough to grab one of the first 10 there is still a chance to save some pennies as the sale will continue with the further 50 discounted passes.

This special offer applies to 2 day conference passes to FOWA London 09 only.

Keep your ears to the ground to find out where and when to get your Summer Sale pass!

Update: The FOWA Summer Sale - http://thinkvitamin.com/ will launch on 9th July at http://www.carsonified.com/