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The recent results of Zygna, Groupon, and even the mighty Facebook on the public markets in the U.S. have served to highlight a couple of major issues for European startups. One is a little jealously: there remain few viable IPO markets in Europe for tech stocks, hence why you see so many moving to the US - usually NASDAQ - when they get big, as happened with Yandex and Qlik Technologies. The second is annoyance: many solid European tech companies are now at a point where they have solid, revenue generating businesses, built on a lot more than hype and user numbers alone. And in the last year we've seen these companies start to look for ways to break-out. For example, there are rumours that both the incredibly successful Wonga and King.com are considering floating on New York’s NASDAQ exchange, while Mind Candy is also alleged to be considering a float for its Moshi Monsters game. And the latest symptom of this is another rallying cry by entrepreneurs and VCs for a tech IPO market in London, the natural home for European startups to float in a global setting.

Because we're in need of some brighter NFC-related news today, Flomio, a TechStars-backed startup, and makers a platform for building NFC and RFID enabled applications, has closed a seed round of $525,000. The round was led by RMR Capital, and included participation from TechStars, the Cloud Power Fund, Matthew Lally (Augme, Pickflair), and Clint Watson (FASO). Based in Miami, Florida ("Silicon Beach!"), Flomio has a different approach to NFC, which will be reflected in a website redesign going out next week. In short, it wants to humanize the technology. Originally a side project from founder Richard Grundy, Flomio was recently accepted into TechStars Cloud, the cloud computing-focused incubator which held its first demo day in April.

Open English, as its name might suggest, is an online learning platform that helps non-English speakers learn the language and speak fluently. After developing the foundation for Open English in his home country of Venezuela in 2006, Andres Moreno took his idea north to Florida, where he launched the program commercially in 2008. Since then, Open English has flourished. Today, the startup employs 1,000 people (40 of whom are in Miami), has offices across Central and South America, and serves 80,000 students in over 20 countries. Just as many American investors have started to turn their attention to Brazil, so too has Open English. Moreno sees big opportunity in Brazil, which is quickly becoming a global marketplace and is seeing demand for English-speaking talent rise dramatically. To expand its footprint in emerging markets in Brazil and South America, Open English today announced that it has taking on an impressive $43 million in venture funding.

If you're anything like me, your mood is directly proportional to the amount of food in your stomach. And when that food is terrific (and maybe even healthy, too), well life is grand. Yet, for a food-centric culture, we don't give ourselves a lot of options. If you happen to work long hours, often by the time you get around to eating, restaurants are closed -- or you're exhausted and not particularly excited by the prospect of cooking, for yourself or the family. McDonald's doesn't always seem like a good choice. Or maybe you live in what is known as a "food desert," or a location that isn't exactly brimming with healthy, affordable options. Pop-Up Pantry has your back. The Los Angeles-based startup is a new subscription club for food lovers that aims to let you bring the restaurant experience home with you. In other words, Pop-Up offers quality, three-course dinners crafted by top chefs via delivery for the same price one would pay for takeout. It's like a wine-of-the-month club but for high-end dinners that are actually affordable, says co-founder David Hauslaib.

Olapic, a NYC-based startup which allows publishers and brands a way to collect photos from their fans for use on their own websites, has closed a $1 million seed round. Investors include Bonobos, Warby Parker, and Geeklist backer Great Oaks Venture Capital, as well as Brad Harrison Ventures, Columbia University's Lang Fund, and several other angel investors. The company has already worked with brands including Condé Nast, Pepsi, NY Daily News, The Baltimore Sun and sports teams like the Mavs, Grizzles, Giants, Ravens, FC Barcelona and others, and is now expanding its reach to another vertical: e-commerce.

You may not have heard about Vermont-based mobile apps company Green Mountain Digital yet, but the company has developed a number of very popular nature and outdoor lifestyle apps. The company, which was founded in 2009, just announced that it has closed a $1.5 million convertible note funding round and is changing its name to NatureShare. This funding round includes new and previous angel investors and includes a follow-on investment from the Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies’ Vermont Seed Capital Fund. The company also raised about $1.5 million in a previous seed round in 2010.

Apptopia, the marketplace where developers can sell their mobile apps, is days out from closing a $1 million seed round of financing, with Mark Cuban leading the investment. Cuban went in for $500,000 himself, and Apptopia's initial investor, Expansion VC, contributed $400,000. The rest of the round was filled out by angel investors from N.Y., Boston and San Francisco. Apptopia founder Jonathan Kay says the round was oversubscribed. "It's funny how when Cuban invests, everyone else wants to follow," he remarked. The close of the round brings the startup's total raise to date to $1.4 million.

Stamped, the ex-Googler backed startup for sharing your favorite things, is rolling out a major revamp of its product today, and is adding a buzz-worthy lineup of new strategic investors, including celebrities like Justin Bieber, Ellen Degeneres, Ryan Seacrest, NBA all-star Baron Davis, Bieber's manager Scooter Braun, as well as media companies The New York Times Co. and Columbia Records. Also going in on the round are notable tech industry names like Google Chairman Eric Schmidt (via TomorrowVentures), Brian Lee of ShoeDazzle, LegalZoom, and The Honest Company, Pandora CTO Tom Conrad (his first investment), CrunchFund, and Metamorphic Ventures. Not surprisingly, current investors Bain Capital Ventures and Google Ventures also participated, bringing the company's total raise to date to $3 million. But while the celebs will bring new eyes to the service, it's the app's redesign that will be the big draw once the celebrity shine wears off.

Jason Langheier founded Zipongo in June 2011 to give families and parents an easier way to make healthier dietary choices by reducing the costs that so often get in the way. Through a web-based health community and iPhone app, Zipongo essentially combines the best of Mint.com and Groupon to create a service that gives users their own personalized wellness plans (and the ability to manage them), while offering discounts at the grocery stores they shop at the most. To help it gear up for a full-scale launch later this summer (Zipongo is currently in private beta), the startup recently closed a round of seed capital ($1M+) from a flock of superangels and healthcare, tech and food marketing veterans. Those names include Flickr and Hunch co-founder Caterina Fake via Founder Collective, Wireless Generation co-founder and CEO Larry Berger, Peter Dolan, the Director of The Partnership for a Healthy America (and former CEO of Bristol-Myers Squibb) and Guitar Hero and Blue Goji co-founder Kai Huang -- to name a few.

It doesn't matter if you have one million Facebook fans if they never see your news feed posts. That's why SV Angel, Founders Fund Angel, and more have backed a $1 million Series A for news feed optimization service Booshaka, which is also launching a big product update today. The startup helps businesses identify their most active fans -- especially the 10% generating 90% of the engagement -- and incentivize them to leave even more wall posts, Likes, and comments. This feedback signals to Facebook's news feed sorting algorithm EdgeRank that a business is high-quality and that its posts should be shown to a higher percentage of its fans. More impressions -> more clicks and awareness -> higher return on investment for businesses on their social media spend. This is social SEO, and it's worth paying Booshaka for.