Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc. (DNB): Business Model Canvas [Dec-2025 Updated]

You're looking to understand the engine behind the company that powers B2B decisions globally, and honestly, it's a massive data operation targeting revenues between $2.44 billion and $2.5 billion in 2025. This isn't just a database; it's a curated Data Cloud of over 595 million business records, backed by strategic cloud partnerships and a high customer retention rate sitting at 87.3%. We're breaking down exactly how they manage risk mitigation and sales intelligence for their clients by mapping out their entire nine-block model below. See how they are investing heavily in tech modernization while keeping that core data asset growing.

Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc. (DNB) - Canvas Business Model: Key Partnerships

You're looking at the core relationships that fuel Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc.'s (DNB) data engine as of late 2025. These aren't just vendor agreements; they are critical data pipelines and distribution channels. Honestly, the strength of DNB's value proposition rests heavily on the quality and breadth of these alliances.

The company's global reach is maintained through a blend of direct ownership and strategic alliances, particularly the Dun & Bradstreet Worldwide Network (WWN). This network is essential because WWN partners provide direct-source data and act as the exclusive distributors for DNB products in their local markets, ensuring global coverage with necessary local depth.

The focus on modern data infrastructure is clear through the technology partnerships. DNB was recognized as the 2025 Databricks Growth Data Partner of the Year, a top honor earned at the annual Data + AI Summit. This collaboration centers on using Delta Sharing, Databricks' open and secure data sharing protocol, to deliver near real-time commercial data, helping clients eliminate silos and accelerate AI transformation journeys.

The scale of the data being exchanged and managed through these partnerships is significant. DNB's global database covers more than 600 million companies worldwide. Furthermore, through the D&B Global Trade Exchange Program, the Data Cloud annually processes more than 2 billion trade experiences from over 700 different industries.

Here's a look at the key players underpinning this structure:

• Strategic cloud providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS) are foundational for DNB's infrastructure.
• Technology integration extends to enterprise software ecosystems, including Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics.
• The Worldwide Network (WWN) partners are crucial for local data sourcing and exclusive distribution rights in their respective geographies.
• The recognition as 2025 Databricks Growth Data Partner of the Year validates the strategic alignment with the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform.

To put some financial context around the business these partnerships support, DNB reported revenue of US$2.38 billion in 2024.

The table below summarizes the nature and scale of these critical alliances:

The reliance on financial institutions for data input and as a customer segment is also key. While the specific number of 150 global financial institutions for data exchange was a target for this analysis, DNB's solutions are widely utilized by banks and financial institutions across regions like the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa.

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.

Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc. (DNB) - Canvas Business Model: Key Activities

You're looking at the core engine room of Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc. (DNB) operations as of late 2025. These are the things the company absolutely must do well to hit its projected 2025 total revenues between $2.44 billion and $2.5 billion.

Curating and governing the Data Cloud of over 595 million business records.

This is the foundational asset. Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc. (DNB) maintains the Dun & Bradstreet Data Cloud, which contains over 595 million business records worldwide. This massive data set is what fuels all their solutions across the Finance & Risk and Sales & Marketing segments. The company's Q1 2025 revenue of $579.8 million is a direct reflection of the perceived value of this governed data asset.

Developing and deploying generative AI and predictive analytics solutions.

The focus here is on embedding advanced intelligence into the data. While the broader generative AI in data analytics market is forecasted to grow by USD 4.62 billion during 2024-2029, Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc. (DNB) is specifically supporting its 2025 organic constant currency revenue growth expectation of 3% to 5% with generative AI solutions. The company's Q1 2025 Adjusted EBITDA reached $210.9 million, showing operational leverage from these investments.

Key areas of AI/Analytics deployment focus include:

• Streamlining processes at 42% of companies deploying AI.
• Co-piloting activities at 39%.
• Strengthening data management at 36%.

Modernizing core technology platforms and migrating clients to new APIs.

You can see the results of this modernization in the segment performance. Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc. (DNB) completed its largest migration initiative in North America, moving clients to platforms like Finance Analytics, Direct+ API, and Risk Analytics. This platform work supports the sticky nature of their business, evidenced by rock solid retention rates at 96%. The North America segment, the largest revenue contributor, brought in $398.0 million in Q1 2025.

Active direct and channel sales of data and analytics solutions.

Sales activity drives the top line, which saw Q1 2025 revenue of $579.8 million. Pricing initiatives alone are expected to contribute 3% to 3.5% to revenue growth in 2025. The sales effort spans two main areas, as shown by the Q1 2025 segment revenues:

The International business, contributing $181.8 million in Q1 2025, saw organic revenue growth of 4.7% excluding foreign exchange impacts. As of the end of 2024, the company served approximately 215,000 clients globally.

Maintaining regulatory compliance and data integrity globally.

Data integrity is paramount, given the concerns over data trustworthiness for AI. The company's long history, tracing back to 1841, is built on providing reliable, objective credit information. The focus on data quality underpins the value proposition for clients managing risk. The GAAP net loss for Q1 2025 was $15.8 million, an improvement from the $23.2 million loss in the prior year quarter. This focus on cleaning, updating, and validating data is a non-negotiable activity for maintaining the Data Cloud's utility.

Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc. (DNB) - Canvas Business Model: Key Resources

The proprietary Dun & Bradstreet Data Cloud, which comprises of more than 595 million records, fuels solutions and delivers insights that empower customers to grow revenue, increase margins, build stronger relationships, and help stay compliant.

Global technology infrastructure, increasingly cloud-focused, involves modernizing data pipelines, such as the migration of 150 products into Google Cloud. This infrastructure ingests and processes about 5 exabytes of raw data nightly.

Proprietary analytics, AI, and machine learning models are key, evidenced by the launch of the advanced generative AI assistant, Chat D&B™.

The globally recognized D-U-N-S Number business identifier is a standard identifier used by more than 500 million global companies.

Intellectual property and software platforms include solutions like D&B Hoovers and D&B Direct Plus, with successful migrations to platforms such as Finance Analytics, Direct+ API, and Risk Analytics.

Here's a quick look at the financial scale supporting these resources as of late 2025:

You can see the scale of the data processing capability:

• Raw data ingested and processed nightly: about 5 exabytes.
• Core data quality checks reduced from hours to minutes.
• Data publishing time cut by 50% end-to-end.

Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc. (DNB) - Canvas Business Model: Value Propositions

You're looking at the core reasons why enterprises pay for Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc. data and analytics, especially as they navigate the AI shift. The value propositions are grounded in hard numbers from their operations as of late 2025.

Mitigating credit and supply chain risk for large enterprises.

The Finance & Risk segment is a primary driver of this value. For the first quarter of 2025, Finance and Risk revenue reached $216.6 million, marking an increase of $8.5 million or 4.1% compared to the first quarter of 2024. This segment directly supports supply chain monitoring and credit decisioning, which is critical when a 2025 Dun & Bradstreet survey showed that over half (54%) of companies adopting AI worry about data trustworthiness. Furthermore, over 90% of the Fortune 600+ rely on Dun & Bradstreet data and insights to help grow and protect their businesses.

Accelerating revenue through sales intelligence and market optimization.

The Sales & Marketing solutions are designed to optimize go-to-market strategies. In the first quarter of 2025, Sales and Marketing revenue was $181.4 million, growing by $2.9 million or 1.6% year-over-year. The speed of insight delivery directly translates to faster revenue cycles. Following platform modernization, customers have shared that their marketing campaigns have gone from months down to days.

Providing trusted, AI-ready B2B data at scale for complex use cases.

Scale is a non-negotiable part of the value proposition, especially for AI grounding. The Dun & Bradstreet cloud database contains information on more than 600 million companies across more than 200 countries around the world. This massive, verified data set is the foundation for their D&B.AI Suite, designed to ensure AI agents can plan, reason, and act correctly. The company serves approximately 215,000 clients globally.

Enabling regulatory compliance and ESG reporting with verified data.

The D&B.AI Agents are specifically adapted for workflows including compliance with regulatory requirements. This focus on verified data helps address enterprise concerns about data security (cited by 46% of respondents in a 2025 survey) and data privacy violations (cited by 43%).

Delivering real-time data integration via API for seamless workflow embedding.

The ability to embed data directly into operational systems is key. Through platform modernization, core data quality checks were reduced from hours to minutes. This focus on timeliness has boosted website and data product response times by over 60%. The D&B Direct solution provides real-time data integration via an API (Application Programming Interface).

Here is a snapshot of the financial scale underpinning these value propositions as of Q1 2025:

The AI trust issue is a major market driver, with 54% of adopting companies worried about data reliability.

• D&B.AI Agents support workflows for:
• Credit risk management
• Supplier assessment
• Sales and marketing
• Compliance with regulatory requirements

The company projects 2025 total revenues between $2.44 billion and $2.5 billion. Finance: draft the Q3 2025 segment revenue breakdown by next Tuesday.

Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc. (DNB) - Canvas Business Model: Customer Relationships

You're looking at how Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc. (DNB) keeps its massive client base engaged and growing its spend. The relationship strategy balances high-touch service for the biggest accounts with scalable digital access for the rest of the nearly 215,000 global clients they served as of December 31, 2024.

Dedicated account management and consultative selling for strategic clients is the bedrock for securing the most complex, high-value relationships. This approach ensures tailored deployment of solutions across their Data Cloud, which includes data on over 580 million organizations worldwide.

The stickiness of the core offering is evident in the reported customer retention rate, sitting at a strong 87.3%. Honestly, that figure shows the market views Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc.'s data as mission-critical, which is defintely hard to replace.

For broader engagement, the company pushes automated, self-service access via API and online platforms. This is supported by major infrastructure work, such as the transition of tens of thousands of North American clients to modern platforms including the Direct+ API. This digital pathway helps manage the sheer volume of their user base efficiently.

The opportunity to deepen relationships comes through cross-selling and upselling across Finance & Risk and Sales & Marketing segments. Management focuses on expanding solution sets within the existing client footprint, which is split across these two primary reporting segments. Here's the quick math on how the North America segment revenue broke down in Q1 2025, showing the potential for moving a client from one area to the other:

The Finance & Risk solutions, which generated $216.6 million in North America revenue for Q1 2025, cover credit decisioning and compliance, while Sales & Marketing, at $181.4 million in the same period, focuses on lead generation and sales acceleration.

The relationship strategy supports several key client interactions:

• Tailored solutions for vertical markets.
• Monetization of new generative AI solutions.
• Integration of D-U-N-S Number for entity identification.
• Driving adoption of modern platforms like Risk Analytics.

Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc. (DNB) - Canvas Business Model: Channels

You're looking at how Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc. gets its data and insights into the hands of its approximately 215,000 global clients as of December 31, 2024. The distribution strategy clearly leans heavily on direct engagement for large accounts, while digital integration is the clear growth vector.

The North America segment, which accounted for 70% of the total 2024 revenue of $2,381.7 million, is where the direct sales muscle is concentrated. This segment generated $1,672.3 million in revenue in 2024.

Direct Sales Teams (Strategic Vertical Accounts, National Accounts)

The direct sales force targets the largest and most complex client relationships, which is typical for high-value data and analytics subscriptions. While specific revenue splits between Strategic Vertical Accounts and National Accounts aren't public, the scale of the North America segment suggests a significant portion of its $1,672.3 million (2024 revenue) is driven by these dedicated teams.

The Sales & Marketing revenue for North America specifically was $781.3 million in 2024, which is a key area where direct sales engagement drives customer acquisition and expansion.

• North America 2024 Revenue: $1,672.3 million.
• Sales & Marketing North America 2024 Revenue: $781.3 million.
• Client retention rate reported at 96% in Q1 2024, indicating success in servicing existing accounts via these channels.

API/Direct Integration into client systems (e.g., D&B Direct+ API)

This channel is about embedding Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc.'s data directly into client workflows-think CRM, ERP, or Master Data Management systems. This is the modern way to sell data-as-a-service, moving away from manual lookups. The company's programmable API, D&B Direct+, is central to this strategy, allowing access to data on over 500 million companies globally.

The focus on this channel is clear, with a new version of the Failure Score being made available via API starting October 31, 2025. This shows a commitment to driving adoption through developer-friendly, real-time data delivery.

Worldwide Network (WWN) partners for international distribution

The International segment contributes 30% of the total revenue, which was $709.4 million in 2024. The Worldwide Network (WWN) is the mechanism that enables this global reach, combining Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc.'s core data with local expertise through strategic partnerships.

The WWN has global data coverage on business records in more than 190 countries. This network is essential for delivering the International segment's data and insights.

• International Segment 2024 Revenue: $709.4 million.
• International Organic Revenue Growth (2024): 6.0%.
• WWN Global Coverage: More than 190 countries.

Online platforms and digital channels for smaller business solutions

Digital channels are critical for reaching smaller businesses and driving self-service adoption, which aligns with the broader industry trend where Gartner estimates 80% of B2B sales interactions will occur in digital channels by 2025. Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc. supports this with platforms like D&B Hoovers and myD&B Mobile App, which won a Gold Stevie® Award in The 2025 American Business Awards®.

The Q1 2025 sales revenue was $579.8 million, showing the ongoing importance of all commercial channels, including digital access points for smaller clients.

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.

Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc. (DNB) - Canvas Business Model: Customer Segments

You're looking at the core user base for Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc. (DNB) data and analytics, which is quite broad, spanning from the biggest global players down to smaller firms. Honestly, the segments aren't always cleanly separated in their reporting, but we can map their two main operating segments-Finance & Risk and Sales & Marketing-directly to the customer types you listed.

As of the end of 2024, Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc. served approximately 215,000 clients globally. This scale is what allows them to maintain their data cloud, which contained nearly 600 million organizations globally as of early 2025.

The customer base is heavily weighted toward North America, which accounted for about 70% of total revenue, with the International segment making up the remaining 30%. The company's proprietary Paydex score, which measures business credit health, remains a widely relied-upon tool across these segments.

Here's a look at how the revenue broke down across the two primary solution areas, using the second quarter of 2025 results, which gives us a good snapshot for late 2025:

The data clearly shows the concentration of the customer base. Large Enterprises and Multinational Corporations (MNCs) are heavily implied by the significant revenue generated by the Finance & Risk solutions, which are essential for supply chain monitoring, fraud mitigation, and credit decisioning for the world's largest entities. The North America segment brought in $397.9 million in Q2 2025, with the Finance & Risk portion alone being $212.6 million.

For Sales and Marketing professionals, the Sales & Marketing solutions help optimize go-to-market strategies using firmographic and alternative data. The total revenue from this segment across both geographies in Q2 2025 was $244.2 million ($185.3 million from North America + $58.9 million from International).

Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) globally are served through the entire platform, as the 215,000 client count suggests a wide net beyond just the Fortune 500. The International segment, which is a key growth lever, saw its Sales & Marketing revenue hit $58.9 million in Q2 2025.

You should note a few things about these customers:

• The company is focused on migrating tens of thousands of clients to modern platforms like Finance Analytics and Risk Analytics.
• The overall Q2 2025 Total Revenue was $585.2 million.
• The company is anticipating a leverage ratio of 3.25x by year-end 2025.
• The International segment's Q2 2025 revenue was $187.3 million.

If you're modeling the impact of the pending acquisition by Clearlake Capital Group, L.P., expected to close in Q3 2025, remember that the operating profitability in Q2 2025 showed a dip, with Operating Income at $12.8 million compared to $37.1 million the prior year. Finance: draft a sensitivity analysis on the 3.25x leverage target against the Q2 2025 debt load by next Tuesday.

Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc. (DNB) - Canvas Business Model: Cost Structure

You're looking at the engine room of Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc. (DNB), and honestly, the cost structure shows where the big money goes to keep that massive data engine running. It's a high-fixed-cost game, which means once you cover the baseline, every new dollar of revenue drops to the bottom line faster, but getting there requires serious upfront investment.

The data itself is the core asset, and keeping it clean, current, and compliant is expensive. This translates to high fixed costs for data acquisition, curation, and governance-you can't skimp on the quality of the world's business records. Also, you're seeing significant capital expenditures aimed squarely at technology modernization. For 2025, the company has signaled a spend in the range of $190 million to $200 million, primarily dedicated to infrastructure improvements and that cloud transition we keep hearing about.

Personnel costs are another major lever. You're paying for the specialized talent needed to manage and monetize that data moat: the data scientists building the next-gen analytics, the engineers maintaining the APIs, and the direct sales teams pushing those vertical-specific solutions. To be fair, one recent report noted lower net personnel costs year-over-year, suggesting some efficiency gains are being chased there, but the high-skill talent remains a significant, necessary expense.

Then there's the debt load, which directly impacts the P&L through interest expense. As of the first quarter of 2025, the total principal amount of debt stood at $3,547.6 million. That substantial debt requires consistent servicing. For context on the expense side, a recent quarter showed a net interest expense of $141.5 million, which you have to cover before you even get to operating profit.

Finally, you can't ignore the ongoing operational burn from cloud infrastructure and hosting costs. These are variable but substantial, especially as the company pushes more clients onto modern, cloud-focused platforms. It's a trade-off: higher cloud costs now for better scalability and efficiency later.

Here's a quick look at some of the key financial anchors defining this cost base as of mid-2025:

The cost structure is heavily weighted toward maintaining the data asset and the technology stack required to deliver it. You see this reflected in the operational metrics, too. For instance, the cost-income ratio climbed to 38.8% in Q2 2025, up from 34.8% in Q2 2024, which tells you that costs, relative to revenue, were under pressure that quarter.

The key cost drivers you need to watch are:

• High, non-negotiable costs for data licensing and quality assurance.
• The planned $190M to $200M technology investment for 2025.
• Interest payments stemming from the $3.5+ billion debt load.
• Salaries for specialized data science and engineering talent.
• Ongoing, scaling cloud hosting and infrastructure fees.

Finance: draft the projected interest expense for the second half of 2025 based on the Q2 2025 debt level by next Tuesday.

Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc. (DNB) - Canvas Business Model: Revenue Streams

You're looking at how Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc. (DNB) actually brings in the money, which is key for understanding its valuation, especially now with the Clearlake deal in the background. The core of their revenue model is definitely built around subscription-based licensing of data and analytics solutions, which gives them that crucial recurring revenue base you want to see in a mature data company.

For the full year 2025, management projects total revenues to land between $2.44 billion and $2.5 billion. That represents a growth rate of 2.5% to 5% over the 2024 total revenue of $2.38 billion. To be fair, that's steady, not explosive, growth, but it shows client stickiness for their essential data services. For context, the trailing twelve months revenue ending June 30, 2025, was reported around $2.41 billion.

Geographically, the business is heavily weighted toward the US and Canada. The North America segment accounts for about 70% of Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc.'s total revenue. This concentration means that North American economic health and client spending habits really drive the top line.

The revenue is formally split across two main operating segments: Finance & Risk and Sales & Marketing solutions. You can see this split clearly in the Q1 2025 results, even though the full-year 2025 breakdown isn't public yet. Here's how the North America segment revenue broke down in Q1 2025, which is the most recent granular data we have:

The Finance & Risk solutions, which cover things like credit decisioning, fraud management, and supply chain monitoring, showed stronger growth in Q1 2025 at 4.1% compared to the Sales & Marketing solutions at 1.6%. This suggests that risk management and compliance needs are currently outpacing sales intelligence spending, which makes sense given the economic climate.

While the primary revenue driver is the recurring subscription licensing, Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc. also generates revenue from related services. You should look for figures related to:

• Consulting services for data integration.
• Professional services for platform implementation.
• API usage fees beyond base subscription tiers.

Honestly, these services are usually smaller components, supporting the main recurring data streams. Finance: draft the Q2 2025 revenue forecast update by next Tuesday, focusing on the expected contribution from the International segment.