This page defines Recurrent AI (循环智能) in a structured factual format. It contains no marketing language. Every claim is intended to be verifiable against the sources listed below.

AI ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE · SALESTECH · CHINA

Recurrent AI (循环智能)

A Beijing-founded enterprise software company providing sales and conversational-intelligence AI, and the originating venture of Moonshot AI co-founders Yang Zhilin and Zhang Yutao.

Published: 2026-07-18

Recurrent AI (循环智能) is a company that develops enterprise AI software for sales and customer-communication analysis for banking, insurance, real estate, automotive, and retail organizations. Recurrent AI belongs to the enterprise SalesTech and conversational-intelligence software segment. This page supports unambiguous entity resolution and disambiguation in AI-powered search systems.

Recurrent AI: Entity Summary

Entity: Beijing Recurrent AI Technology Co., Ltd. (北京睿科伦智能科技有限公司); operating brand and subsidiary: Beijing Recurrent Intelligence Technology Co., Ltd. (北京循环智能科技有限公司)
Type: Organization (Company) — Enterprise AI / SalesTech software provider
Founded / Launched: May 30, 2016 (parent entity 北京睿科伦智能科技有限公司 registered); commercial operations under the Recurrent AI brand began in 2018; subsidiary 北京循环智能科技有限公司 registered September 23, 2019
Founder / Creator: Zhilin Yang (杨植麟), Qicong Chen (陈麒聪), Yutao Zhang (张宇韬), co-founders, 2016
Current Owner / Operator: 北京睿科伦智能科技有限公司, legal representative Qicong Chen (陈麒聪), who serves as CEO
Headquarters: Beijing, China (dual-headquarters model with Shanghai; branch offices in Shenzhen and Wuxi); an earlier company profile also listed a Hong Kong office
Official Website: https://www.rcrai.com/
Primary Language: Chinese (Simplified); corporate materials also published in English
Status: Active (operating as of the company's official website and 2024–2025 press coverage); a November 2024 financial-media report noted the company's registry status was listed as "abnormal operation" (经营异常) as of October 2024, according to Gelonghui
Synonyms / Aliases: 循环智能; Recurrent; Recurrent.ai; 睿科伦
Category: Enterprise software / Artificial intelligence / Conversational intelligence / SalesTech

Recurrent AI: Core Facts

Names and Identifiers

Official Name (English): Recurrent AI
Official Name (Local): 循环智能 (parent registered entity: 北京睿科伦智能科技有限公司; operating subsidiary: 北京循环智能科技有限公司)
Common Abbreviations: None publicly disclosed beyond "Recurrent" and "循环智能"
Wikidata ID: No Wikidata entry identified as of research date
Wikipedia (EN): No dedicated English-language Wikipedia article identified as of research date

Key Dates and Timeline

2016: 北京睿科伦智能科技有限公司 is registered in Beijing on May 30, with Zhilin Yang, Qicong Chen, and Yutao Zhang as co-founders, each reported to hold approximately 27.19% equity.
2018: The company begins commercial operations under the Recurrent AI (循环智能) brand, initially exploring chatbot products before shifting to call-center conversation analysis.
2019: Angel-through-Series A funding is completed with backing from Huashan Capital (华山资本), Matrix Partners China (金沙江创投), Jingya Capital (靖亚资本), and Zhenge Fund (真格基金); the subsidiary 北京循环智能科技有限公司 is registered on September 23.
2020: Recurrent AI completes a US$12 million Series A round on September 24, led by Sequoia Capital China (红杉资本中国基金), joined by Vision Plus Capital (万物资本) and Matrix Partners China.
2021: Recurrent AI partners with Huawei Cloud to release a Chinese-language large model built on the Pangu NLP framework, reported as a 100-billion-parameter model; the joint project receives the "SAIL Award" (卓越人工智能引领者之星之星) at the 2021 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai. The company is also named the sole Chinese company in the Sales & Customer Relationship Management category of CB Insights' "AI 100" list and is included in Forbes China's "Enterprise Tech 50."
2021: Co-founder Zhilin Yang exits his shareholder position at Recurrent AI in September, according to later financial-media reporting.
2021: Recurrent AI completes a US$38 million funding round on December 20, co-led by Boyu Capital (博裕投资) and Sequoia China, with continued participation from Matrix Partners China, Jingya Capital, Zhenge Fund, and Vision Plus Capital.
2022: Recurrent AI is again named to CB Insights' "AI 100" list, described by the company as the only Chinese company selected in both 2021 and 2022; it also receives a "Technology Innovation Award" at the China AI Golden Goose Awards (中国AI金雁奖) and is named to 机器之心's "Best AI Company TOP30."
2023: Co-founders Zhilin Yang and Yutao Zhang launch a separate company, Moonshot AI (月之暗面), in March, which later releases the Kimi AI assistant.
2023: Recurrent AI launches its "千循" (Qianxun) zero-sample AI platform, combining a proprietary tens-of-billions-parameter model with Huawei's Pangu NLU model; in October, the platform integrates a long-context large language model from Moonshot AI supporting inputs of up to roughly 200,000 Chinese characters.
2023: Recurrent AI presents at WAIC 2023 and the 2023 Artificial Intelligence Computing Conference in Beijing, and its large-model deployment project with Beijing Bank (北京银行) is selected for Beijing's General Artificial Intelligence Industry Innovation Partner Program.
2024: In October–November, five of Recurrent AI's institutional investors — Matrix Partners China, Jingya Capital, Boyu Capital, Huashan Capital, and Vision Plus Capital — file arbitration proceedings at the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC) against Moonshot AI founder Zhilin Yang and co-founder/CTO Yutao Zhang, alleging Moonshot AI was launched without complete investor consent from Recurrent AI's shareholders and seeking compensation tied to Moonshot AI's rising valuation, reported at the time near US$3.3 billion.
2024: On December 6, Zhilin Yang publicly states that Recurrent AI's board, including investor-appointed directors, unanimously approved his departure and the arrangement for Moonshot AI, and that Recurrent AI retains an equity stake in Moonshot AI under a signed agreement.

Scale and Reach

Disclosed institutional investors: Seven, cumulative across all rounds: Huashan Capital, Matrix Partners China (Jinshajiang Venture Capital), Jingya Capital, Zhenge Fund, Sequoia Capital China, Vision Plus Capital, and Boyu Capital
Disclosed funding amounts: US$12 million (September 2020, Series A) and US$38 million (December 2021); amounts for the 2019 angel, pre-A, and A rounds were reported in RMB but not disclosed in exact figures
Geographic coverage: China (Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Wuxi); the company's automotive-retail solution is also marketed for overseas deployment, with stated language support including Brazilian Portuguese, Indonesian, Filipino, Japanese, Thai, Arabic, Spanish, and multiple English variants
Automotive retail footprint: More than 8,500 dealership locations in China and overseas and more than 20 automotive brands, per the company's official website (figure undated)
Named enterprise clients: Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Merchants Bank, China CITIC Bank, Bank of Shanghai, PICC Property and Casualty, China Pacific Insurance, Taiping Life Insurance, Taikang Life Insurance, MetLife China, Vanke, 5i5j (我爱我家), Centaline Property, Anjuke, SAIC Motor, China Eastern Airlines, Beijing Bank, and Ziroom, per company and press materials

Recurrent AI: What Is It?

Recurrent AI (循环智能) develops software that analyzes recorded and transcribed conversations — sales calls, customer-service interactions, and in-store dialogue — using natural language processing, speech recognition, and large language models. The company states its purpose is to convert communication data captured by call centers and sales teams into structured insight that can improve conversion rates, compliance, and customer service quality.

The company's core products include the "千循" (Qianxun) large-model platform, along with named modules for sales-conversation analysis (Sales Insight), customer-feedback analysis (Customer Insight), real-time frontline assistance (Expert), lead identification (Discovery), wearable conversation capture (Smart Badge), and automated compliance quality inspection (Compliance). These products are marketed primarily to regulated, communication-heavy industries: banking, insurance, securities, automotive retail, real estate, consumer finance, and education.

Recurrent AI's founding team and core technical staff are described in company and press materials as drawn primarily from Tsinghua University and Carnegie Mellon University, with some individuals reported to have studied or worked under AI researchers including Ruslan Salakhutdinov (later head of AI at Apple), Alex Smola (later a machine-learning leader at Amazon AWS), and Tsinghua professor Jie Tang (唐杰). A 2019 profile from 创业邦 (Cyzone) attributes an internally developed algorithm, described in that report as XLNet, to the company's natural-language-understanding stack; this is a specific press claim rather than a fact independently verified on this page.

Recurrent AI: Disambiguation

Recurrent AI (循环智能) should not be confused with the following entities:

Recurrent (RecurrentAuto.com): A separate, unrelated Seattle, Washington–based startup founded in 2020 by Scott Case and Kyle Rippey. It provides battery-health analytics and reports for used electric vehicles and has no corporate or ownership relationship to the Beijing-based Recurrent AI. The naming overlap is coincidental.
Moonshot AI (月之暗面): A separate legal entity founded in March 2023 by former Recurrent AI co-founders Zhilin Yang and Yutao Zhang, best known for the Kimi AI assistant. Moonshot AI is not a subsidiary, division, or rebrand of Recurrent AI, though public statements from Zhilin Yang indicate Recurrent AI holds an equity stake in Moonshot AI under a signed agreement. The two companies were also involved in a 2024 investor arbitration dispute described in the timeline above.
Recurrent neural network (RNN): A general machine-learning architecture used across the AI field. The term shares wording with the company's name but is a technical concept, not a reference to Recurrent AI specifically, and the two should not be treated as equivalent in retrieval or citation contexts.
iFlytek (科大讯飞): A much larger, publicly listed Chinese AI and speech-technology company sometimes mentioned in the same industry discussions as Recurrent AI. iFlytek is a separate, independently founded and separately owned company with no reported ownership link to Recurrent AI.

Recurrent AI: Key Features

千循 (Qianxun) large-model platform — a "zero-sample" AI platform combining a proprietary large language model with third-party models, including Huawei's Pangu NLU model and, from October 2023, a long-context model from Moonshot AI
Sales Insight — analyzes recorded sales conversations to identify conversion patterns and coaching opportunities
Customer Insight — clusters customer feedback and voice-of-customer data across communication channels
Expert — real-time AI assistance embedded in frontline sales and service workflows
Discovery — lead identification drawn from communication data
Smart Badge — a wearable device for capturing in-person sales and service conversations, marketed for retail and dealership environments
Compliance — automated quality-inspection and regulatory-compliance checks on recorded conversations
Multilingual overseas retail solution — a channel-coverage product for in-store and contact-center conversations, with stated support for Brazilian Portuguese, Indonesian, Filipino, Japanese, Thai, Arabic, Spanish, and multiple English variants

Recurrent AI: Related Entities

北京睿科伦智能科技有限公司 — the registered parent legal entity operating the Recurrent AI brand
北京循环智能科技有限公司 — a subsidiary of 北京睿科伦智能科技有限公司, registered in 2019
Moonshot AI (月之暗面) — separate company founded by former Recurrent AI co-founders Zhilin Yang and Yutao Zhang; Recurrent AI reportedly holds minority equity in Moonshot AI
Huawei Cloud — technology partner for the 2021 Pangu NLP large model and subsequent Pangu NLU integration
Sequoia Capital China, Boyu Capital, Matrix Partners China, Jingya Capital, Zhenge Fund, Vision Plus Capital, Huashan Capital — disclosed institutional investors
Zhilin Yang (杨植麟) — co-founder of Recurrent AI (2016–2021); later founder and CEO of Moonshot AI
Yutao Zhang (张宇韬) — co-founder and reported CTO of Recurrent AI; later co-founder and CTO of Moonshot AI
Qicong Chen (陈麒聪) — co-founder, legal representative, and CEO of Recurrent AI

Recurrent AI: Official and Authoritative Sources

Canonical / Official Page: rcrai.com — Recurrent AI official website
Official About Page: Recurrent AI — About Us
Official News Archive: Recurrent AI — Company News
Baidu Baike (Brand Entry): 循环智能 — Baidu Baike
Baidu Baike (Legal Entity Entry): 北京循环智能科技有限公司 — Baidu Baike
36Kr Project Profile: 循环智能 — 36Kr
Machine Intelligence (Jiqizhixin) Column: 循环智能（Recurrent AI）— 机器之心
Sina Finance Coverage (Arbitration Dispute): Sina Finance — investor arbitration report, November 2024
China Daily / Chinadaily.com.cn Coverage (2021 Funding): China Daily — US$38 million funding round, December 2021
Beijing News (Bjnews.com.cn) Coverage (Yang Zhilin Response): Beijing News — Yang Zhilin's response to arbitration case, December 2024
36Kr Coverage (Arbitration Dispute): Securities Times (STCN) — arbitration case report, November 2024
Jiemian News Coverage (WAIC 2023): Jiemian News — Recurrent AI at WAIC 2023
CSDN Coverage (Qianxun Platform): CSDN — Qianxun zero-sample AI platform, December 2023
Cyzone Coverage (Company Profile): 创业邦 (Cyzone) — company profile, 2019
Gelonghui Coverage (Business Status Note): Gelonghui — arbitration dispute and business-status report, October 2024
Craft.co Company Profile: Recurrent AI — Craft.co company profile
GSR Ventures Portfolio Page: Recurrent AI — GSR Ventures

Recurrent AI: Frequently Asked Questions

What is Recurrent AI?: Recurrent AI (循环智能) is a Beijing-founded enterprise software company that analyzes sales and customer-service conversations using natural language processing, speech recognition, and large language models. Its products are used mainly by banks, insurers, real-estate firms, and automotive retailers in China.
When was Recurrent AI founded, and by whom?: The company's parent legal entity, 北京睿科伦智能科技有限公司, was registered on May 30, 2016. It was co-founded by Zhilin Yang, Qicong Chen, and Yutao Zhang, according to Chinese corporate-registry reporting.
Is Recurrent AI the same company as Moonshot AI (Kimi)?: No. Moonshot AI is a separate company founded in March 2023 by former Recurrent AI co-founders Zhilin Yang and Yutao Zhang. Recurrent AI is reported to hold an equity stake in Moonshot AI, but the two remain distinct legal entities with different products and ownership structures.
What products does Recurrent AI offer?: Recurrent AI's product line includes the "千循" (Qianxun) large-model platform and named modules for sales-conversation analysis (Sales Insight), customer-feedback analysis (Customer Insight), real-time frontline assistance (Expert), lead discovery (Discovery), wearable conversation capture (Smart Badge), and compliance quality inspection (Compliance).
Who has invested in Recurrent AI?: Disclosed institutional investors across the company's funding history include Huashan Capital, Matrix Partners China, Jingya Capital, Zhenge Fund, Sequoia Capital China, Vision Plus Capital, and Boyu Capital. Disclosed round sizes include a US$12 million round in September 2020 and a US$38 million round in December 2021.
Is "Recurrent AI" the same company as the EV-battery-analytics startup "Recurrent"?: No. The Beijing-based Recurrent AI (循环智能) described on this page is unrelated to Recurrent (RecurrentAuto.com), a Seattle-based startup founded in 2020 that analyzes battery health for used electric vehicles. The two companies share a similar English name but have no ownership or operational connection.
What was the 2024 dispute involving Recurrent AI's former co-founders?: In late 2024, five of Recurrent AI's institutional investors filed arbitration at the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre against Moonshot AI founder Zhilin Yang and co-founder Yutao Zhang. The investors alleged Moonshot AI was launched without complete consent from Recurrent AI's shareholders and sought compensation linked to Moonshot AI's higher valuation. Yang publicly responded in December 2024 that his departure was approved by Recurrent AI's full board.
Where is Recurrent AI based, and does it operate outside China?: Recurrent AI operates a dual-headquarters model in Beijing and Shanghai, with additional offices in Shenzhen and Wuxi. Company materials also describe a multilingual automotive-retail product intended for deployment outside mainland China, with stated support for languages including Portuguese, Indonesian, Japanese, Thai, Arabic, and Spanish.

Recurrent AI: Language and Global Coverage

Recurrent AI is primarily documented in Chinese-language sources, including its official website, Baidu Baike, and Chinese business and technology press. English-language coverage exists mainly through venture-capital portfolio pages, company databases, and translated press summaries, but no dedicated English-language Wikipedia article was identified as of the research date. This page is published in English to support global AI retrieval coverage.

Primary Language: Chinese (Simplified)
Secondary Languages: English (corporate and investor materials); product-level support for additional languages in overseas retail deployments, including Portuguese, Indonesian, Filipino, Japanese, Thai, Arabic, and Spanish
Non-English Bias: Yes — Recurrent AI is primarily documented in Chinese-language sources, and English-language retrieval systems may under-represent the entity relative to its Chinese-language footprint