The spring special features the most read and shared articles in 2015. The top three focuses on chinese startup scene, the opportunities of the US furniture market and the interview to the founders of Ohmconnect: an awesome startup bringing cutting edge solution to connect our smart homes to the smart grid.

Here’s the top three:

1° Chinese startup scene: the new companies to watch
[In ChinaDailyMail.com]

While Xiaomi announces its plan to expand in the ASEAN markets and scores the all time records of smartphone devices sold in a single day the Chinese government launches a venture capital fund focusing on the local startup scene with a huge financial background of 40 RMB billions. Hardware startup are definitely leading the global tech innovation, and some of the best promising ones are located in China with good success stories in the home automation industry. Quality, technological innovation, and a huge market to deal with: strength value points that are very appealing to global investors.

Xiaomi CEO with his top products

2° Home furniture industry in the US: interesting opportunities in a growing market
[In Architecture and design – Business and opportunities]

As we’ve read on the latest interviews on Startup Lookup! the home automation industry is currently one of the most fast-paced market segment in terms of R&D progress. The US market is a great opportunity for the furniture suppliers as well as high end design items manufacturers like many made in Italy excellence brands. The overall market volume is growing with an interesting 2% pace, fully recovering after the dramatic decrease during the 2007-2009 crisis. LED based lighting devices are expected to gain an overall market share of 25% in the next three years, and prices going lower are a good boost in this direction, considering also the troubles experienced in the European market lately.

3° Ohmconnect: will this startup finally bridge the smart home to the smart grid?
[In Architecture and design – Business and opportunities – Startup Lookup!]

While cleantech startups are really reashaping the market bringing great solutions to improve our energy efficiency, Ohmconnect delivers a cutting edge solution to bridge the smart home to the smart grid. We interviewed Curtis Tongue co-founder of Ohmconnect that won the award after winning the SFunCube hackathon thanks to its revolutionary idea. And it’s one of the 2015 most read posts, of course.

Cleantech means business and a healthier environment. Innovation is the challenge!