Recollective

What Recollective does

Recollective, founded in 1998 and headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, operates a cloud-based guided discovery platform purpose-built for qualitative market research. The platform is used by global brands, market research agencies, and educational institutions to run asynchronous activities, live video focus groups and IDIs, digital diaries, UX studies, and long-form insight communities. Over 1,500 customer organizations across more than 40 countries use Recollective, including Microsoft, RBC, Experian, Nikon, Cambridge University Press, Meijer, Mattel, Western Governors University, and Michigan State University.

The product architecture comprises three core modules. Recollective Qual is the main research execution platform built around an activity-based framework that mixes async tasks, journals, video sessions, discussions, and diverse question types (text, photo, video, screen recording, audio, card sorting, polls). Recollective Connect provides unified participant management, screening, segmentation, and engagement for communities of all sizes. Recollective AI is the AI layer that includes Ask AI for natural-language querying of qual data with source-verbatim attribution across single studies, multiple projects, and predictive hypothetical exploration; Conversation Task, an autonomous AI-moderated one-on-one interview that adapts prompts in real time and scales to hundreds or thousands of parallel sessions; Automatic Translations across 27 languages bundled into all licenses; and AI-powered transcription and summarization for video and audio content. The platform is SOC 2 Type 2 compliant with encryption in transit and at rest, data residency options, and customer opt-out controls for AI features.

Recollective monetizes via subscription licensing priced on a quote basis against project scope, participant count, and required services and support level, typically under multi-year contracts. Professional services for setup, delivery, training, and consultation are layered on top. Go-to-market is sales-led with direct outreach, tailored demos, and channel support through weekly office hours, webinars, case studies, and an active LinkedIn and YouTube presence. The company is privately held, bootstrapped for over 27 years with no disclosed venture or private equity backing, and expanded into APAC in February 2025 with a new Australian office housing Sales and Customer Support.

Name

Recollective

Legal name

Recollective Inc.

Website

https://recollective.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1998

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Recollective is a cloud-based qualitative research platform serving global brands, market research agencies, and educational institutions with AI-powered asynchronous activities, live video sessions, AI-moderated interviews, and insight communities across 40+ countries.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Qualitative Research Software

NAICS

Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (518210)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Content Aggregation, Curation & RSS Platforms (BPAMAJAI)

Keywords

• Qualitative research platform
• Insight community software
• Online focus groups
• AI-moderated interviews
• Market research technology

Headquarters

HQ city

Ottawa

HQ country

Canada

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Subscription Licensing: Recollective Qual licenses with pricing based on project scope, number of participants, and level of services or support required. Automatic Translations included at no extra cost with all Recollective Qual licenses.
2. Professional Services: Setup services, delivery services, and training and consultation offered as part of the service and support offering.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Recollective sells a cloud-based qualitative research and insight community platform to enterprises, market research agencies, and educational institutions. Its three core products (Recollective Qual, Recollective Connect, and Recollective AI) enable asynchronous and live qualitative studies, participant management, and AI-powered analysis including AI-moderated interviews, natural-language Q&A over study data, and automatic multilingual translation across 27 languages.

Product overview

Recollective is a Guided Discovery Platform for qualitative research and insight communities. The platform architecture consists of three core products: Recollective Qual (the main research execution platform for async/live qual projects and hybrid studies), Recollective Connect (participant and community management with onboarding, screening, and segmentation), and Recollective AI (AI-powered analysis suite including Ask AI for natural language querying, Automatic Translations across 27 languages, and Conversational AI for scalable interviews). These integrate with activity-based research tools (structured tasks, journals, live video sessions, discussions), diverse question types (text, photo, video, audio, screen recording, card sorting, polls), and comprehensive reporting with AI-powered analysis. The platform supports research methods including long-term insight communities, customer journeys, digital diaries, UX testing, and shop-along studies. Pricing is based on project scope, number of participants, and support level required.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Recollective Qual Core qualitative research platform that enables organizations to conduct asynchronous and live qualitative projects, hybrid studies, and always-on insight communities through structured activities, threaded discussions, live video sessions, and AI-powered analysis. Sold via subscription licensing to enterprises, market research agencies, and educational institutions.
• Recollective Connect Participant management and community-building solution that brings research tools and participants into a single platform, supporting onboarding, screening, segmentation, and engagement for communities of all sizes.
• Recollective AI Suite of AI-powered capabilities sold with the Recollective platform, encompassing Ask AI for natural-language querying of qualitative data, Automatic Translations across 27 languages, AI transcription and summarization for video and audio, and Conversational AI (Conversation Task) for scalable one-on-one AI-moderated interviews.

Quantifiable outcome

• Doubled community membership and increased engagement for Experian
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers14 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability9 records

Feature5 records

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Alida (formerly Vision Critical): Alida is a customer intelligence platform combining insight communities, surveys, and qualitative research tools. It directly overlaps with Recollective Qual and Recollective Connect on enterprise insight-community programs.
• Discuss.io: Discuss.io provides live video focus groups, IDIs, and asynchronous qual activities with global respondent access and translation services. It overlaps directly with Recollective's live video and multilingual qual capabilities.
• Fuel Cycle: Fuel Cycle is an insights platform supporting insight communities, surveys, and qualitative research for enterprise brands. It competes with Recollective on long-term insight communities, participant management, and consumer feedback programs.
• dscout: dscout is a qualitative research platform offering diary studies, mobile ethnography, and in-the-moment research for enterprise and academic customers. It directly competes with Recollective Qual on diary, IDI, and activity-based qual workflows.
• Remesh: Remesh is an AI-powered qualitative and quantitative research platform using conversational AI to run live group conversations at scale. It is highly comparable to Recollective's Conversation Task AI-moderated interview feature and Ask AI analysis layer.

Broad incumbents

• Kantar (Insights Division): Kantar is one of the world's largest market research groups with proprietary insight platforms and AI-powered analysis tools. It is a broad incumbent competing for the same global-brand and agency qualitative research budgets Recollective serves.
• Qualtrics: Qualtrics is a broad experience-management platform (owned by Silver Lake/CPPIB) spanning surveys, CX, EX, and increasingly qual and video feedback. It overlaps with Recollective in enterprise research but serves a much wider portfolio of use cases.
• Toluna: Toluna is a global consumer insights platform combining owned panels, surveys, and qualitative research tools. It overlaps with Recollective on agency and enterprise qualitative research as part of a wider end-to-end insights offering.
• Forsta: Forsta is an enterprise research technology platform offering surveys, qual, CX, and advanced analytics. It competes with Recollective in the enterprise and agency research segments as a broader, multi-method incumbent.
• UserTesting: UserTesting (now part of UserZoom/Merlinus) is a UX research platform offering unmoderated and live usability tests, video feedback, and surveys. It competes with Recollective's UX research and live video IDI capabilities as part of a broader experience-research suite.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks1 record

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/RecollectiveInc
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@recollectiveinc
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/recollective

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Recollective