Mayfly Ventures

Water-Trading Management Platform

Aquifa is a cutting-edge platform built to simplify compliance, data management and day-to-day administration for Australia’s water brokers. Co-created by industry veteran Nick Johnston and Mayfly Ventures, the system translates a maze of state and federal rules into a clean workflow that lets brokers focus on matching water supply with demand. Launched for Victorian users and gearing up to serve the wider Murray-Darling Basin, Aquifa offers the sector’s first broker-centred toolset for secure, scalable and truly modern water trading.

CLIENT

YEAR

SERVICES

Aquifa

2024

Product Design

Information Architecture

Strategy

Venture Validation

Go to Market

PROBLEM

Water trading in Australia moves billions of dollars’ worth of entitlements each year, yet brokers still grapple with sprawling documentation, evolving regulations and siloed datasets. Every transaction demands meticulous verification, cross-checking and record-keeping—work that drags resources away from client service and slows trades when timing matters most. Without a unified platform, compliance risk and administrative overhead kept climbing, stifling growth for even the most experienced brokers.

solution implemetation

Mayfly and Nick Johnston joined forces to distil those burdens into a single cloud application. A Bubble.io front end allowed rapid iteration of broker-facing screens, while a Xano back end delivered ISO 27701 and SOC 2-ready security for sensitive entitlement data. Automated form generation, real-time rule validation and a dynamic ledger replaced manual paperwork, and an API-first architecture prepared Aquifa to slot into government registries and ag-tech dashboards as standards evolve.

HOW WE GOT THERE

A series of discovery workshops blended Nick’s on-the-ground knowledge with Mayfly’s product-strategy playbook. Low-fidelity click-throughs were tested with pilot brokers inside a fortnight, exposing pain points like duplicate data entry and opaque fee calculations. Each feedback loop tightened the flow until experienced brokers could process a trade in minutes, not hours. Security audits, privacy impact assessments and hard-data load tests followed, culminating in a beta release that handled its first season peak without a hiccup and captured the interest of brokers across three states.

"Aquifa’s workflows are highly intricate, but Mayfly built an experience that makes even the toughest tasks feel effortless. The platform lets brokers focus on clients instead of red tape, and that’s a game-changer for the future of water trading."

Nick Johnston / Co-Founder

INSIGHTS

Aquifa shows that even the most regulation-heavy domain can feel intuitive when user empathy leads and complexity is tucked beneath the surface. By turning legislative clauses into live guardrails—rather than after-the-fact checklists—the platform transforms compliance from a chore into quiet confidence. Its low-code spine proves speed and security need not be trade-offs; rapid updates keep pace with shifting water policy while certified data practices reassure brokers and growers alike. Most of all, Aquifa validates a simple truth: freeing experts from paperwork lets them deliver better outcomes for the communities that depend on every drop.

AQUIFA