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About RIVER

The most important work of the decade.

Our vision has been the same for fifteen years: A world where technology empowers people. AI is the biggest test of this yet.

The record

AI is new. Getting it to work takes experience.

15+
years digital innovation
500+
projects delivered
100%
project delivery rate
3.5M+
annual user sessions
100+
unique AI workflows
80K+
largest knowledge base

Proud to be 100% NZ built, Māori and Pacific owned, enterprise proven.

Their words

This is the part we can’t write ourselves.

Isaac, Rai and everyone at RIVER were a pleasure to work with, and they delivered our platform on time and on budget. Their insights have kept coming ever since.
Peter KissFounder, Property Mogul · 2017
RIVER took the complexity out of a very large project and kept our team aligned throughout. It felt like they were part of our organisation from day one.
Sophia GrahamCommunications Lead, Mental Health Foundation · 2020
RIVER has been a trusted partner from the start, and they exceeded what we expected. We're already seeing the difference their work is making.
Ellen LekkaProgramme Specialist, UNESCO & SVSG · 2025
Our business runs on what RIVER built. They have been central to our technology and our growth, and it keeps driving results.
Mark BramwellDirector, Commercial Realty · 2024
RIVER are responsive and always ready to adapt. We have never had to chase them, and their support has been critical as our needs changed.
Supriya Kulkarni-PadhyeM&E Coordinator, Oceania Football Confederation · 2020
We have always been ambitious about what our site should do, and RIVER take on the hardest parts of it. They make it happen, no matter how complex.
Chris HartFounder, Real Groovy · 2021
Who you get

No layers. The people who build it are the people you deal with.

Senior operators, most with 20+ years each. Decisions happen in the room, not up a chain.

Isaac Rolfe

Managing Director

AI Strategy & Agentic Architecture
Te Aupōuri, Te Whakatōhea

20+ years shipping high-impact projects across New Zealand and Australia. Built RIVER's enterprise AI platform and designed the agentic architecture behind it.

Rainui Teihotua

Chief Creative Officer

Design & User Experience

20+ years designing products people actually use. Turns complex workflows into interfaces teams pick up without a training manual.

John Li

Chief Technology Officer

Platform & AI Infrastructure

20+ years in software engineering and platform architecture. His philosophy: build it properly, make sure it never goes down, keep it sovereign.

Tim Hatherley-Greene

Chief Operating Officer

AI Adoption & Enterprise Transformation

20+ years turning complex challenges into working systems, from Canterbury's earthquake recovery to enterprise AI adoption. Makes sure the right things get built, and that people actually use them.

Mak Khan

Chief AI Officer

Agentic AI & Knowledge Architecture

Co-built Hakamana AI, one of New Zealand's largest enterprise knowledge platforms. Brings hands-on AI engineering to every client engagement.

Dr Tania Wolfgramm

Chief Research Officer

Applied Research & Evaluation
Te Aupōuri, Te Whakatōhea, Ngāi Takoto, Ngāi Tai

30 years bridging Indigenous knowledge systems and technology. Presented at Google and Stanford, and authored Waitangi Tribunal research.

What we believe

We build AI that empowers people, not replaces them.

AI is the first technology that can go either way on that, which is why we are careful about which half of it we build.

We have turned down work that would simply replace a team, and we will again. The proof is that we say no.

People

Ngākau Tangata

People are our greatest asset. We put them at the heart of every project.

Perseverance

Ngākau-roa

Challenges define us. We push, we reflect, we pivot, and we stay until it works.

Integrity

Ngākau Tapatahi

Integrity guides every decision. We tell you the truth, and say no when something doesn't fit.

Insight

Ngākau-nui

We are curious and challenge assumptions. We solve the right problem before solving it right.

Those four were published for a decade before the AI pivot. When we laid ten years of client feedback against them it matched four for four, which is why we treat them as observations rather than aspirations.

How we got here

We started as a studio. We stayed for the hard part.

Fifteen years ago Isaac and Rainui started a small studio, on the thing they turned out to be best at: building technology that works for the people using it. By 2018 the projects had outgrown it, and we became RIVER.

When ChatGPT launched at the end of 2022 we made the call within a month, and spent two years on the problems nobody had solved yet: hallucinations, security, cost, integration. We rebuilt our stack around the answers.

Today we build the AI platforms ambitious organisations actually run on, and we get their teams using AI properly. The repositioning was deliberate. The delivery record is the part that did not change.

Why we win

We deliver, or we work for free.

We take the risk. You take the leap. Every RIVER engagement carries a guarantee, and these are the answers people ask us for before they say yes.

The norm

Working with RIVER

Another failed pilot

A 100% project delivery rate, across 500+ projects.

Building it wrong

Specialists succeed at roughly twice the rate of going alone.

About 67% against about 33%. MIT Project NANDA, via Fortune.

Slow and costly

Live in weeks, not months.

Paying for activity

Measurement built in from day one.

Losing control, lock-in

You own your data, your workflows, and your IP. Always.

Hosted in Aotearoa, deployable on your terms. Independence from day one.

Talkers, not doers

We build, not just consult, and we run the same tech we sell.

Market figures carry their source every time. The delivery record is what we have done; any return we project is a target we scope with you and measure together.

A conversation about your business, not a pitch about ours.

If ChatGPT or Copilot already does what you need, use them. When you’re ready to run your business on AI, that’s where we come in.

Take the Readiness CheckThe RIVER Retainer