Media deals

Their core work

Media deals is a Cannes-based association that worked on the support side of Europe's digital startup ecosystem during the Startup Europe era. Across their three H2020 projects they contributed to building networks of accelerators, hubs and mentoring programs — specifically for women web entrepreneurs, cross-regional digital startups and creative-industry SMEs. In practice this means connecting founders to co-working spaces, meetups, seed VC and international markets rather than doing technical R&D themselves. Their value to a consortium is access to startup community infrastructure and a presence in the French creative/media cluster around Cannes.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

All three projects ran in the same 2015-2016 window, so there is no meaningful multi-year trajectory to trace. What the keyword spread does show is breadth within a single theme: from supporting under-represented founders (women web entrepreneurs) to transregional digital startups and then creative-industry SMEs. No H2020 activity is visible after 2016.

Activity in the CORDIS record is concentrated in 2015-2016 with no later projects, so a prospective partner should verify whether the organisation is still operationally active before planning new work.

How they like to work

Media deals always joined as a participant, never as coordinator, across three separate consortia that together involved 27 partners in 15 countries. That pattern fits a community/ecosystem contributor that plugs into different Startup Europe initiatives rather than a lead partner driving work packages. They are a hub-style connector, bringing different networks into each consortium rather than repeatedly working with the same core team.

27 distinct consortium partners across 15 countries in just three projects — a high partner-to-project ratio that points to broad pan-European ecosystem reach. Home base is Cannes, anchoring them in the French creative and digital cluster.

What sets them apart

Among French digital associations, Media deals stands out for combining three different Startup Europe angles — gender inclusion, transregional digital entrepreneurship and the creative industries — inside a single calendar year. Their Cannes location gives them natural proximity to the media, film and creative-tech scene, which is unusual for an H2020 startup-support partner and potentially useful for consortia targeting creative-industry SMEs.

Highlights from their portfolio

• WeHubs
  One of the earliest EU networks specifically dedicated to women web entrepreneur hubs, a still-underserved policy theme.
• ACE Creative
  Rare H2020 project tying innovation multipliers directly to creative-industry SMEs, matching the organisation's Cannes location.
• TWIST DIGITAL
  Transregional model linking accelerators, co-working/co-living and seed VC — a compact blueprint of the mid-2010s Startup Europe toolkit.