Definitive Healthcare Corp. (DH): Business Model Canvas [Dec-2025 Updated]

You're looking to cut through the noise and see exactly how Definitive Healthcare Corp. makes its money, so I've mapped out their entire operation using their late-2025 performance. Honestly, it boils down to owning unique U.S. healthcare commercial data and wrapping it in a sticky Software-as-a-Service platform, which is why 97% of their Q3 2025 revenue came from those recurring subscriptions. This model is clearly working, evidenced by their 32% Adjusted EBITDA margin last quarter, all while serving a core base of enterprise clients who each drop over $100,000 in Annual Recurring Revenue. Let's break down the nine blocks that drive this engine.

Definitive Healthcare Corp. (DH) - Canvas Business Model: Key Partnerships

You're looking at how Definitive Healthcare Corp. builds out its commercial intelligence by leaning heavily on external expertise and data streams. The Key Partnerships block isn't just about vendors; it's about extending the reach and depth of their core data assets, especially as they navigate a market where data quality and integration are make-or-break for life sciences and provider clients. Honestly, their Q3 2025 results, showing revenue at $60.0 million and Adjusted EBITDA at $18.9 million, are partly supported by these strategic moves.

Strategic Advertising Agencies for Digital Engagement

Definitive Healthcare Corp. is clearly pushing hard into digital activation, making partnerships with data connectivity firms and agencies a priority. They launched their first syndicated always-on go-to-market partnership with LiveRamp in Q3 2025. This move lets marketers use Definitive Healthcare's data, like pre-built audience segments, directly in the LiveRamp marketplace for privacy-safe digital channel activation. To be fair, this is a crucial step for monetizing their data beyond direct client use.

The focus on agency channels is showing traction. Management noted the signing of eight new agencies in Q3 2025 alone. This channel is key for scaling digital engagement efforts.

• Partnership with LiveRamp: Launched in Q3 2025 for syndicated, always-on digital activation.
• Agency Wins: Added eight new agencies in Q3 2025.

Data Providers to Expand Claims and Clinical Data Assets

The quality and breadth of claims and clinical data are central to Definitive Healthcare Corp.'s value proposition. They are actively managing and improving these assets through partnerships. In Q3 2025, they highlighted the addition of a new claims data source and planned for another addition later that quarter, with the goal of surpassing historical data levels. This data remediation is also yielding financial benefits; they realized approximately $1.5 million in a one-time benefit from a data contract renegotiation and a $1.0 million net cost reduction from replacing an existing claims source.

While older data points to significant scale, like a 60% increase in Atlas Prescription Claims coverage reported in early 2023, the late 2025 focus is on quality and integration efficiency, as evidenced by the cost savings.

VML Health for Integrated Key Opinion Leader (KOL) Management

For the life sciences segment, the integration with VML Health is designed to simplify the complex process of identifying and engaging Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs). This partnership links VML Health's Superfly digital engagement platform with Definitive Healthcare Corp.'s Monocl ExpertInsight data product. Monocl ExpertInsight is the engine here, delivering medical research and clinical activity data on more than 15 million medical experts globally. This unified solution gives pharma clients a 360-degree view to streamline strategic collaboration with these experts.

Technology Partners for Seamless Workflow Integrations

Definitive Healthcare Corp. continues to embed its intelligence across the broader tech ecosystem. A recent example from October 2025 involved partnering with Bombora, Crunchbase, G2, and HG Insights to launch curated ecosystem audiences, helping B2B advertisers target specialized segments. Separately, their collaboration with Baker Tilly enriches Baker Tilly's kolNOW platform with Definitive Healthcare's data, enhancing 7.4 million-plus KOL profiles with intelligence spanning over 219 U.N.-recognized countries. This shows a commitment to making their data actionable within other enterprise systems.

Here's a quick look at the scale of data leveraged through these specific technology integrations:

The ability to integrate, like winning a medical device company by combining hospital affiliation data with claims analytics, is what drives competitive displacement. Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.

Definitive Healthcare Corp. (DH) - Canvas Business Model: Key Activities

You're focused on what Definitive Healthcare Corp. actually does to keep the lights on and grow, so here are the hard numbers tied to those core functions as of late 2025.

Sourcing, cleaning, and integrating complex healthcare data

The activity here is about managing the sheer volume and messiness of healthcare information. In Q3 2025, Definitive Healthcare added a new claims data source and planned to add another later in the quarter, aiming to surpass historical data levels. This is happening in a market where healthcare data accounts for approximately 30% of the world's data volume, with about 80% of that being unstructured data that needs heavy lifting to use.

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform development and maintenance

This is the investment in the engine itself. For Q1 2025, development expense as a percentage of revenue stood at 12.5%. Looking ahead for the full year 2025, management projected product development as a percentage of revenue to be up approximately 100 basis points compared to the full year 2024. The subscription revenue component, which is the core of the SaaS offering, saw a 6% year-over-year drop in Q2 2025.

Here's a quick look at the financial context for the platform's performance through Q3 2025:

Executing go-to-market strategy and new logo production

The sales and marketing engine is being pushed harder due to revenue pressure. For the full year 2025, sales and marketing as a percentage of revenue is expected to increase approximately 150 to 200 basis points relative to the full year 2024. In Q3 2025, the company reported encouraging improvements in new logo production. The enterprise customer count-those generating more than $100,000 in annual recurring revenue-grew by 10 in Q3 2025, reaching a total of 520 customers, the highest level since Q3 of last year.

Key go-to-market focus areas include:

• Securing wins from a large multinational biopharma in Q3 2025.
• Displacing an incumbent data provider with a medical device company in Q3 2025.
• Focusing on professional services, which grew 46% year-over-year in Q2 2025.

Driving customer success to improve retention rates

Retention is definitely top of mind; management noted it was a focus area in Q3 2025. While they saw encouraging improvements in retention rates in Q3 2025, the reality is that net dollar retention for the full year 2025 will be down year-over-year. In Q2 2025, management highlighted achieving the 'highest retention rate since the second quarter of last year.' If onboarding takes 14+ days, churn risk rises, though specific onboarding times aren't public. Management acknowledged the critical importance of the December and January renewal period for shaping 2026 performance.

Finance: draft 2026 cash flow projections incorporating the $239 million to $240 million full-year 2025 revenue guidance by Friday.

Definitive Healthcare Corp. (DH) - Canvas Business Model: Key Resources

You're looking at the core assets that power Definitive Healthcare Corp.'s value proposition as of late 2025. These aren't just line items; they are the engine for their commercial intelligence offering.

Proprietary, differentiated healthcare commercial data assets

The foundation here is the sheer breadth and quality of the data Definitive Healthcare Corp. collects and cleans. They focus on making this data differentiated, which is key when competitors are trying to match features. For example, in Q3 2025, they added a new claims data source and planned another addition later in that quarter to surpass historical data levels. This data feeds into their core intelligence platform.

The data sets include specifics that drive customer wins, such as:

• Up-to-date information on revenue cycle executives.
• Organizational charts and contact data.
• Payer mix intelligence.
• Claims analytics.

Scalable SaaS technology platform and deep analytics

The delivery mechanism is a SaaS-based healthcare commercial intelligence platform. This platform is built to use deep analytics and data science to translate raw data into strategic decisions for clients. The platform's success is reflected in the company's financial performance, with Q3 2025 Adjusted EBITDA reaching $18.9 million, representing a 32% margin. The full-year 2025 guidance projects Adjusted EBITDA in the range of $68.0 - $69.0 million.

The platform is composed of various suites that help clients:

• Accelerate medtech revenue growth with Carevoyance Suite.
• Drive marketing campaigns using Population Intelligence dashboards.
• Analyze claims data with the Populi Suite.

Enterprise customer base of 520 clients (>$100k ARR)

The sticky, high-value customer segment is a critical resource. As of Q3 2025, the Enterprise customer count, defined as those with over $100k in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR), reached 520. This figure was noted as the highest level achieved since Q3 of the prior year. The trailing twelve-month revenue as of September 30, 2025, was $242 million.

Here's a snapshot of the scale and performance metrics around this customer base:

Intellectual property and Master Data Management capabilities

Protecting the core technology is paramount, relying primarily on trade secret protection, confidentiality agreements, and contractual arrangements, rather than registered patents. A key component making the solution more sticky is the Master Data Management (MDM) capability, which allows customers to integrate both first-party and third-party data with the Definitive Healthcare platform. The company secured a large data/MDM partnership to further this capability.

The reliance on these proprietary methods is evident in competitive displacements, where the ability to combine data-like hospital affiliation data with claims analytics-proves decisive.

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.

Definitive Healthcare Corp. (DH) - Canvas Business Model: Value Propositions

Comprehensive healthcare commercial intelligence for the U.S. market

Definitive Healthcare Corp. delivered Third Quarter 2025 Revenue of $60.0 million, representing a 4% decrease from $62.7 million in Q3 2024.

For the full year 2025, revenue is guided to be in the range of $239.0 - $240.0 million.

Adjusted EBITDA for Q3 2025 was $18.9 million, which is 32% of revenue.

The company's enterprise customer count reached 520 as of Q3 2025, an increase of 10 new logos in the quarter.

Deferred revenue stood at $92 million at the end of Q3 2025, marking a 7% year-over-year increase.

Actionable data to optimize go-to-market and sales strategy

A medical device company selected Definitive Healthcare because their incumbent provider lacked critical insights on affiliation hierarchies within Integrated Delivery Networks (IDNs), which are necessary to identify buying decision makers.

The platform helps commercial teams better understand their total addressable market and prioritize the most relevant accounts within their territory.

Solutions to identify key opinion leaders and market opportunities

A large multinational biopharma client chose Definitive Healthcare to transform medical affairs operations, replacing time-intensive manual research used to identify key opinion leaders across multiple product lines.

The platform provides intelligence to drive growth and expansion, improve network integrity, and increase patient acquisition.

• Provider-specific analytics built on the Atlas Dataset help compete better and win more in the healthcare market.
• Explorer Volume analysis helps identify high-volume physicians performing procedures out-of-network, indicating expansion opportunities.
• Claims data analysis uncovers market rates, such as seeing some of the highest rates in the country for total knee arthroplasty in Florida.

High-quality data integration with client workflows for efficiency

Definitive Healthcare offers Data Integration technologies that provide access to commercial intelligence within systems clients rely on every day.

Integration options include CRM connectors for near real-time access, Data Sharing via Snowflake or Databricks Data Share, and Commercial RESTful APIs like HospitalView, PhysicianView, and Monocl ExpertData.

One client, Millennia, gained new market insight by integrating the intelligence into Salesforce, which included mapping, de-duplicating records, and providing an additional 135,000 new accounts.

The Master Data Management strategy aims to integrate Definitive data with clients' tools and systems, resulting in high retention rates where these integrations occur.

Definitive Healthcare Corp. (DH) - Canvas Business Model: Customer Relationships

You're looking at how Definitive Healthcare Corp. keeps its customers engaged and growing their spend, which is key when you see revenue decline year-over-year, even as they raise profit guidance. Honestly, their relationship strategy centers on making their data indispensable, which you can see in the numbers from late 2025.

Dedicated customer success teams to drive retention.

Definitive Healthcare Corp. is definitely focused on making sure customers get value fast. Management noted they are refining the entire customer journey, from initial engagement through onboarding and service, to ensure an exceptional experience. This focus is showing up in the metrics; retention rates saw another quarter of year-over-year improvement in Q3 2025. Still, they acknowledge that Net Dollar Retention (NDR) is pressured by softness in upsells, particularly in the life sciences segment, and they need to get through the large renewal cohort in December and January to confirm the trend is durable. The total customer count held steady at approximately 2,400 in Q3 2025, but the focus is clearly on keeping the high-value ones.

High-touch, consultative sales for enterprise accounts.

For your biggest clients, the sales approach is consultative, not just transactional. This seems to be working, as the enterprise customer count grew by 10 in Q3 2025, reaching 520 enterprise customers-the highest level since Q3 of the prior year. These wins are significant, including securing a large multi-national biopharma to transform their Medical Affairs operations and a medical device company choosing them for data quality. You can see the high-touch nature in a direct sales win with a large teaching hospital that expanded its commitment from a test phase to a mid-six-figure campaign. It's about proving the data advantage in competitive situations.

Integrated platform access for self-service data consumption.

The platform's stickiness comes from deep integration into a customer's workflow, which makes the data consumption self-service and essential. They are making substantive progress in their Master Data Management strategy to integrate their data directly into client systems, like feeding data via API into a customer's sales force deployment. Here's the quick math on why this matters: customers who integrate their data renew at a rate approximately 10% higher than others. What this estimate hides is the complexity of achieving that integration, but the payoff in retention is clear.

Digital engagement enablement for provider targeting.

Definitive Healthcare Corp. is actively building out its digital engagement pillar, often through agency partnerships to scale go-to-market efforts. In Q3 2025, they signed eight new agencies. This follows a trend where, as of Q2 2025, they had 15 agencies contracted, with six of those already activating campaigns on the platform. This digital activation is a key focus area management expects to build momentum in the second half of the year to aid retention and upsell.

• Signed eight new agencies in Q3 2025.
• Secured a first syndicated AlwaysOn go-to-market partnership with LiveRamp.
• Saw strong double-digit growth in the number of data integration engagements in Q1 2025.
• A direct sales win involved a large teaching hospital expanding a test to a mid-six-figure campaign.

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.

Definitive Healthcare Corp. (DH) - Canvas Business Model: Channels

You're looking at how Definitive Healthcare Corp. gets its intelligence platform into the hands of its customers. It's a mix of direct selling to the big players and enabling partners to scale the reach of their data.

Direct sales force targeting enterprise and mid-market clients

The direct sales force is clearly focused on landing and expanding within larger organizations. As of the third quarter of 2025, the enterprise customer count reached 520, which management noted was the highest level since the third quarter of the prior year. This is up from approximately 2,500 total customers reported at the end of 2024. You saw a direct sales win in Q3 2025 where a large teaching hospital expanded its commitment from a test to a mid-six-figure campaign, showing the direct team is closing meaningful deals, even with sales cycles remaining elongated, especially in life sciences.

SaaS platform access via web and API integrations

Access to the core intelligence is delivered through the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform, available via the web interface and Application Programming Interface (API) integrations. The company sees traction in data integrations as a key catalyst for retention; honestly, integrated customers renew at a rate approximately 10% higher. While Definitive Healthcare Corp. doesn't publish its specific API usage volume, the broader North American Healthcare API Market was estimated to be valued at USD 242.7 Mn in 2025, indicating the environment is ripe for data exchange capabilities. The platform's ability to seamlessly combine data, like hospital affiliation data with claims analytics, is what secures competitive displacements.

Strategic channel partnerships with agencies and integrators

Channel partners, particularly agencies, are a growing part of the go-to-market. In the third quarter of 2025, Definitive Healthcare Corp. signed eight new agencies. This builds on momentum from the second quarter, where 15 agencies were contracted, with six of those already activating campaigns. These agency partnerships leverage healthcare audience segments to create repeatable revenue streams and improve digital ad targeting precision. This is a smart way to scale reach without linearly scaling the internal sales team.

Investor Relations website for financial transparency

For financial stakeholders, the Investor Relations website, accessible at ir.definitivehc.com, serves as the primary channel for transparency. You can find key financial updates there, such as the Q3 2025 revenue of $60.0 million and the raised full-year 2025 revenue guidance range of $239 million to $240 million. The site also hosts webcasts and replays, like the one for the Q3 2025 call, which was available through December 6, 2025.

Here's a quick math summary of the channel-related metrics we've seen:

The company is clearly pushing for deeper platform adoption through integrations, which directly impacts customer stickiness. The focus on agency partnerships is defintely a lever for broader market penetration.

• Enterprise customer count growth to 520 in Q3 2025.
• Six agencies actively running campaigns as of Q2 2025.
• Q3 2025 revenue was $60.0 million.
• Full-year 2025 revenue guidance midpoint is approximately $239.5 million.
• Integrated customers show a 10% higher renewal rate.

Definitive Healthcare Corp. (DH) - Canvas Business Model: Customer Segments

You're looking at the core buyers for Definitive Healthcare Corp. as of late 2025, focusing on the hard numbers that define their market penetration.

Biopharma and Medtech companies (facing macroeconomic headwinds)

This segment saw specific challenges, with management noting that downsells were concentrated here, alongside pricing pressure impacting upsells during 2025. Sales cycles for life sciences still showed some latency as of Q2 2025. Despite this, Definitive Healthcare secured a win with a large multinational biopharma in Q3 2025 to transform medical affairs operations, and a medical device company was also cited as a key customer win in that quarter.

Healthcare Providers (hospitals, health systems)

Definitive Healthcare continues to win business in this area. In Q3 2025, a direct sales win involved a large teaching hospital expanding its commitment from a test to a mid-six-figure campaign. The platform is used to drive critical business use cases across end-markets.

Healthcare Software, IT, and Professional Services firms

This group is a key part of the ecosystem served. Customer wins in Q2 2025 included a healthcare revenue cycle management firm selecting the platform to improve go-to-market execution, and a healthcare-focused private equity firm expanding its relationship for diligence strategy.

Enterprise customers generating over $100,000 in ARR

This tier represents the most valuable segment of the customer base, showing the depth of adoption. Here's the quick math on that segment as of the latest reported periods.

The overall customer base is served under a subscription model, with the company guiding for full-year 2025 revenue in the range of $239.0 - $240.0 million.

You can see expansion within the provider and private equity space, even as the life sciences segment navigates macro pressures. The focus on differentiated data and integration capabilities is clearly driving wins in this top-tier segment.

• Q3 2025 Revenue: $60.0 million
• Q2 2025 Adjusted EBITDA Margin: 31%
• Q3 2025 Adjusted EBITDA Margin: 32%
• Total Customers (Approximate): ~2,570 (as of Q4 2024 context)

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.

Definitive Healthcare Corp. (DH) - Canvas Business Model: Cost Structure

You're looking at where Definitive Healthcare Corp. spends its money to keep the commercial intelligence engine running. It's a model built on high upfront investment to secure and process the proprietary data that forms the core value proposition.

The operating efficiency is clear from the recent performance. For the third quarter ended September 30, 2025, Definitive Healthcare Corp. managed its operating expenses to achieve an Adjusted EBITDA margin of 32%. This margin was delivered on total revenue of $60.0 million for the quarter, resulting in an Adjusted EBITDA of $18.9 million.

The costs tied directly to keeping the data fresh and available-the high fixed costs for data acquisition and processing-show up in the Cost of Revenue. For Q3 2025, the Cost of Revenue exclusive of amortization was $9,069 thousand. This reflects the ongoing spend necessary to ingest, clean, and maintain the massive datasets that clients rely on for identifying key opinion leaders and understanding provider networks.

Significant investment in technology and product development is a constant. This ensures the platform evolves with client needs, like adding new claims data sources or enhancing integration capabilities. For the same quarter, the investment in Product development was $7,553 thousand. This is the fuel for future feature releases and platform stability.

Acquiring new customers requires a substantial, though managed, outlay in sales and marketing expenses for new logo acquisition. In Q3 2025, Sales and marketing expenses totaled $20,380 thousand. This spend supports the go-to-market strategy, including direct sales efforts and building out agency partnerships, like the first syndicated always-on go-to-market partnership with LiveRamp mentioned recently.

Here's a quick look at the key operating expense components for the third quarter of 2025, showing where the revenue dollar is allocated before reaching the Adjusted EBITDA line:

• The largest component of operating expense was Sales and marketing at $20,380 thousand.
• General and administrative expenses were $12,364 thousand.
• Product development investment was $7,553 thousand.
• Amortization costs were $4,984 thousand.

To be fair, you have to look at the total operating expenses to see the full picture of investment versus the $45,993 thousand in Gross Profit generated that quarter. Here is a breakdown of the major expense categories for the three months ended September 30, 2025, with all figures in thousands:

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.

Definitive Healthcare Corp. (DH) - Canvas Business Model: Revenue Streams

You're looking at how Definitive Healthcare Corp. actually brings in the money, which is key for any financial model you're building. Honestly, it's a very typical Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) setup, but the numbers tell a clear story about where the bulk of the cash comes from.

The core of Definitive Healthcare Corp.'s income is the recurring access to its commercial intelligence platform. This is the engine of the business.

• Subscription fees for SaaS platform access make up a massive 97% of Q3 2025 revenue.
• This recurring revenue model is the foundation, with management emphasizing a focus on improving renewal rates, noting encouraging improvements in Q3 2025.

To give you a snapshot of the scale and the guidance they are working with for the full fiscal year 2025, here are the key figures we have as of late 2025:

Now, let's talk about the smaller piece of the pie, professional services. While it's a small fraction compared to subscriptions, it's showing some positive momentum. You saw this segment outperforming expectations back in Q1 2025, which management highlighted then. By Q3 2025, professional services revenue showed modest growth at 1% year-over-year, which is still growth, even if small.

The focus on the recurring model means that the health of renewals is critical. While Q1 2025 showed continued challenges with lower retention rates than their targets, by Q3 2025, the CEO specifically called out encouraging improvements in retention rates. That's the action item you want to track-if those improvements translate into better net retention figures next quarter, the recurring revenue stream is stabilizing nicely. If onboarding takes 14+ days, churn risk rises.

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.