FortifAI strengthens leadership ahead of NOL8 commercial launch
FortifAI Limited (ASX: FTI) has appointed Priya Shivakumar to the Advisory Board of its subsidiary NOL8, a strategic move made as the company approaches commercial launch.
Shivakumar currently serves as chief product officer at Archetype AI. She brings product and go-to-market leadership across AI infrastructure and enterprise software-as-a-service (SaaS), positioned to guide NOL8’s strategy through the launch phase.
The appointment was authorised for release by the Board of Directors and dated 24 August 2026.
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A track record of scaling AI and data businesses
Shivakumar’s career spans product leadership across AI infrastructure, developer platforms and enterprise SaaS. Her experience taking early-stage technology to enterprise scale forms the basis of her advisory role.
Key career highlights include:
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Archetype AI (current): leads product strategy and commercialisation for the company’s Physical AI platform and its foundation model, Newton, alongside emerging agentic AI products.
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Lightning AI: as chief product officer, led the launch and commercialisation of Lightning Studio, scaling the platform to more than 300,000 users and establishing its enterprise business.
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Confluent Cloud: helped build the business from its earliest stages, shaping product, pricing and go-to-market strategy, and scaling to approximately $30 million in annual recurring revenue during her tenure.
The following table summarises the headline metrics from her career.
| Company | Role / Initiative | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Lightning AI | Lightning Studio launch | 300,000+ users |
| Confluent Cloud | Early-stage build & go-to-market | ~$30M ARR during tenure |
| Confluent Cloud | Gross margin initiative | Single digits to 70%+ |
At Confluent Cloud, Shivakumar led a cross-functional initiative that improved cloud gross margins from single digits to more than 70%, helping position the business for Confluent’s 2021 IPO. Following the IPO, Confluent Cloud grew to $624 million in annual revenue in FY2025.
Understanding NOL8 and why this appointment matters
NOL8 delivers the AI Data Plane, purpose-built to govern and deliver the right data to every AI agent at wire speed. By enforcing policy inline, NOL8 recovers idle GPU capacity and lifts effective utilisation for NeoClouds and the customers they serve.
NOL8’s global multi-continent testing across Megaport’s live network delivered 34 TB/day of governed data, more than 10X the throughput of legacy benchmark software, with byte-identical policy outputs confirmed across Virginia, Tokyo and Sydney.
A company approaching commercial launch needs proven commercialisation leadership to convert technology into enterprise revenue. Shivakumar’s experience taking infrastructure and AI products from early stage to enterprise scale maps directly to NOL8’s next phase, as the business builds out its go-to-market and product strategy ahead of launch.
Leadership perspective on the road to commercial launch
Both the new advisory board member and NOL8’s chief executive framed the appointment around production-grade reliability and category leadership ahead of launch.
Priya Shivakumar, Advisory Board Member, NOL8
“Infrastructure problems don’t get solved by better demos. They get solved when a system can run continuously, reliably, in production under real operational constraints. That’s the same bar I’ve held product organizations to throughout my career, and it’s particularly important as enterprises move AI into production. I’m looking forward to helping NOL8 translate its technology into something enterprises can depend on at scale.”
Kelly Herrell, CEO, NOL8
“Priya has spent her career turning ambitious data and AI technology into enterprise products that dominate their markets globally. Her perspectives will be invaluable for strategic guidance toward NOL8’s product roadmap toward category leadership in advance of our commercial launch.”
What this means for investors
FortifAI is building out the NOL8 Advisory Board ahead of commercial launch, and this appointment signals continued momentum toward that milestone. Adding proven commercialisation expertise reflects a focus on translating NOL8’s technology into enterprise revenue as the business moves toward launch.
The appointment is on similar key terms to previous Advisory Board appointments, as set out in the Company’s ASX Announcement of 26 June 2026.
FortifAI is an Australian Securities Exchange listed technology company focused on artificial intelligence and advanced computing. The company develops AI-forward technologies through its subsidiary NOL8, alongside a portfolio of video games. No commercial launch date, financial terms of the appointment, or NOL8 revenue figures were disclosed in the announcement.
For investors exploring the milestones underpinning FortifAI’s commercial launch timeline, our full explainer on the NOL8 commercialisation roadmap walks through the three-phase plan, verified throughput metrics and the execution risks that remain ahead of first commercial contracts.
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