Zoltán Petres

2004 to 2009 · Tokyo, Japan · Budapest, Hungary · Canberra, Australia

Research & Ventures

Researcher, Project Lead, Investment Analyst

Where it started: AI, robotics and building the investment case for a start-up.

Studio photograph of a white porcelain robotic gripper with one vermilion fingertip.
  • $5M+EU and national research grants won
  • $1MToshiba grant for the iSpace project
  • $550kseed round built and pitched

A PhD at the University of Tokyo, research leadership at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and venture work that seeded Gravity R&D.

The research years

  • University of Tokyo, Institute of Industrial Science. Won a $1M Toshiba grant for iSpace, a 3D virtual space and early IoT project, and led a team of three MSc researchers.
  • Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA SZTAKI). Won $5M+ in EU and national grants and coordinated three multi-country projects, including Europe’s most advanced industrial 3D CAVE tele-robot system.
  • Australian National University. Research scholarship on automatic text summarization, later piloted by the Australian Federal Police.

The venture years

  • ValDeal Innovations. Built the investment case, roadmap and go-to-market for Gravity R&D and pitched its $550k seed round. Led M&A and tech-scouting work, including the product roadmap for Omixon, which later raised $2M in venture funding.

What I took from it

A PhD in AI teaches you what a model can and cannot do. Venture work teaches you that this is rarely the question that decides the outcome.

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