Florian Meloux (X-HEC.20) and Spokhand: joining hands with the Tokyo Deaflympics

The 2025 Deaflympics — the Olympic Games for deaf and hard-of-hearing athletes — are taking place this year in Tokyo and mark the 100th anniversary of the event.

Among the official partners, the start-up Spokhand has developed a sign-language translation system. Its founder, Florian Meloux (X-HEC ’20), pursues a clear mission: to make the world more accessible for the 70 million deaf people across the globe.

A path driven by commitment

A graduate of the X-HEC double degree, Florian Meloux has always sought to combine innovation with social impact. With Spokhand, the US-based start-up he co-founded, he designs solutions to make information more accessible to deaf communities. “Eighty percent of our team members are deaf,” he explains. “I also wear a hearing device. Our project comes from within the community — not from outside.”
As early as 2022, Spokhand received support from Archimedes, a health-focused investment fund that provides €10,000 annually through its Eureka program. This partnership proved decisive: it was at that moment that the idea of collaborating with the Deaflympics — the Olympic Games for deaf athletes — emerged.

Making information accessible

Spokhand’s mission is simple to express yet difficult to implement: produce content accessible to both deaf and hearing audiences. All videos created by the team include International Sign Language interpretation and subtitles. “Sign language is not universal,” Meloux reminds us. “There is French Sign Language, American Sign Language, Japanese Sign Language… and the differences can be significant. International Sign Language isn’t official, but it acts as a bridge — a way for people to understand each other across borders.”
This dual accessibility is what sets Spokhand apart. One example: an interview with Midori, a Japanese sprinter, interpreted simultaneously into International Sign Language and subtitled in English. “That way, the video is accessible to deaf viewers in Japan, deaf audiences worldwide, and also to hearing viewers,” he explains.

A partnership with the Deaflympics

This expertise convinced the Deaflympics committee. Thanks to the founders’ networks, Spokhand was able to present its project directly to the organization’s vice-president, based in Japan. The reaction was immediate. “He loved our approach because it is designed by — and for — the deaf community,” says Meloux.
The Deaflympics bring together nearly 100 countries and are backed by a budget exceeding $100 million. Yet despite their long history, they remain little-known and rarely covered by mainstream media or social platforms. “It’s a paradox: it’s a major global event, but still largely invisible. Our goal is to change that.”

Even before the Games began, Spokhand published interview videos with French, American and Japanese athletes. In Tokyo, the team continues filming interviews throughout the competition. “For now, we don’t yet have real-time translation technology,” Meloux admits. “But we’re moving fast.”

The objective is twofold: to give unprecedented visibility to deaf athletes and to demonstrate that accessibility can be built into content from the very start. “Producing a great video isn’t enough if it can only be understood by part of the audience. Our role is to make sure that everyone can access it.”

Giving everyone a voice

With Spokhand, Florian Meloux stands in line with a tradition of HEC entrepreneurs committed to social transformation. But his project has a distinctive feature: it comes directly from lived experience. “I am part of this community. I know the daily obstacles. Spokhand was born from that reality.”

With the Tokyo Deaflympics, this journey enters a new phase — and proves how an idea born on a university campus can one day resonate on the world’s biggest sporting stages.