RELX PLC (RELX): Business Model Canvas [Dec-2025 Updated]

After two decades analyzing complex structures, I can tell you RELX PLC's engine runs on proprietary data and AI, not just content; they've built a fortress around critical decision-making for legal, scientific, and risk professionals. With H1 2025 revenue hitting £4,741 million, it's clear their subscription-heavy model is working, especially as their Risk segment remains the largest piece of the pie. Honestly, understanding how they blend deep data aggregation with targeted acquisitions is key to seeing where this powerhouse is headed next, so dive into the full nine-block canvas below to see the mechanics.

RELX PLC (RELX) - Canvas Business Model: Key Partnerships

Targeted acquisitions of small analytics/data companies (e.g., Henchman)

RELX PLC's acquisition strategy focuses on targeted data sets and analytics that supplement organic growth, aiming for businesses where RELX is the 'natural home'. The typical annual spend on acquisitions is about £400m, with the company buying around 10 businesses a year on average. In the first half of 2025, RELX completed three acquisitions for a total consideration of £262m. This contrasts with 2024, where five acquisitions were completed for a total consideration of £195m. The acquisition of Henchman, a Belgian legal technology company, which occurred 13 months prior to August 2025, directly contributed to the improved answer quality and accelerated personalized AI features of the flagship AI legal assistant commercialized in August 2025.

Collaborations with academic institutions for STM content and research

The Scientific, Technical & Medical (STM) segment revenue for the first nine months of 2025 saw underlying growth of 5%. The segment's Primary Research area, which is a little over half of its revenue, saw article submissions grow by over 20% and articles published grow by 10%. RELX demonstrates partnership through its Corporate Responsibility initiatives, where it has partnered with the Ban Ki-moon Centre for Global Citizens, and its Global Head of Corporate Responsibility serves on the Board of the Foundation for the Global Compact.

Technology vendors for cloud and AI infrastructure development

RELX's strategy involves combining leading content and data sets with powerful artificial intelligence and other technologies. The company noted supply chain dependencies on cloud service, software, and large language model providers. Across RELX, there are over 12,000 technologists, with the Risk division alone employing more than 3,600 technologists. The company reported an estimated annual technology spend of $1.9bn within the Risk segment context.

Industry associations and government bodies for data sourcing (Risk segment)

The Risk segment's growth in H1 2025 was 8% underlying revenue growth. This segment relies on combining public and industry-specific content with technology. More than 7,500 federal, state, and local government agencies utilize LexisNexis Risk Solutions products to prevent fraud and maintain program integrity. In 2024, 88% of new US auto insurance policies benefited from Risk segment products.

Co-exhibitors and venue partners for the Exhibitions segment

The Exhibitions segment (RX Global) generated revenues of £581 million (US$797 million) in the first half of 2025, showing underlying revenue growth of 8%. The segment's adjusted operating profit grew 9%, amounting to £234 million (US$321 million). The segment achieved a significant improvement in margins to 40.3% in H1 2025.

• H1 2025 Exhibitions Underlying Revenue Growth: 8%
• H1 2025 Exhibitions Adjusted Operating Profit Growth: 9%
• H1 2025 Exhibitions Adjusted Operating Margin: 40.3%

RELX PLC (RELX) - Canvas Business Model: Key Activities

You're looking at the core engine of RELX PLC, the information-based analytics and decision tools provider. This section details the essential things RELX PLC must do well to make its business model work, grounded in the latest H1 2025 figures.

Developing and deploying AI-enabled analytics and decision tools (e.g., Lexis+AI)

This activity is central to RELX PLC's strategy, driving growth across segments. The Legal division saw underlying revenue growth of 9% in the first half of 2025, directly supported by the adoption of tools like Lexis+AI. The Risk division's underlying revenue growth hit 8% in the first nine months of 2025, fueled by its deeply embedded AI-enabled analytics. Management noted that generative AI capability is now being extended across the majority of the revenue base as of H1 2025.

Aggregating and curating proprietary, high-value data sets and content

This is the foundation for the analytics tools. The overall group reported underlying revenue growth of 7% for the first half of 2025, with electronic revenue growing by 7%. The strategy is a continuous shift towards higher-growth analytics and decision tools, which deliver enhanced customer value.

Conducting primary research and managing the peer-review process (STM)

The Scientific, Technical & Medical (STM) division, which includes Elsevier, is evolving away from print. For H1 2025, STM underlying revenue growth was 5%, excluding print and print-related revenues. Underlying adjusted operating profit growth for STM was 7% in the same period. Back in 2024, Primary Research saw over 20% growth in article submissions and 15% growth in published articles.

Strategic portfolio development via small, targeted acquisitions

RELX PLC actively manages its portfolio through buying and selling businesses to align with its analytics focus. In the first half of 2025, the company completed three acquisitions for a total consideration of £262 million. They also completed two small disposals during that same period. For context, in 2024, they executed five acquisitions for £195 million and seven disposals for £95 million. The stated average target for acquisition consideration is around c £400 million.

Organizing and managing global face-to-face and digital industry events

The Exhibitions business, known as RX Global, is established at strong ongoing growth. For H1 2025, underlying revenue growth was 8%. Revenues for the first half of 2025 reached £581 million (US$797 million), with an adjusted operating profit of £234 million (US$321 million). Margins in this segment saw a further significant improvement to 40.3% in H1 2025.

Here's a quick look at how the segments performed in H1 2025:

The overall group adjusted operating margin improved to 34.8% in H1 2025, up from 34.1% in the prior year period.

Finance: review the £262m acquisition spend against the £425m remaining share buyback allocation by end of year.

RELX PLC (RELX) - Canvas Business Model: Key Resources

The Key Resources for RELX PLC are fundamentally tied to its position as a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools, built on decades of data accumulation and technological deployment.

The foundation rests upon proprietary, deeply embedded data sets and content libraries, which form a significant competitive moat against rivals. This content is continuously enhanced by the deployment of advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning algorithms across the business segments.

The company's intellectual property and brand equity, anchored by names like Elsevier and LexisNexis, represent established trust and market penetration in their respective professional fields. The strategic shift towards higher-growth analytics is driven by leveraging this content with technology.

RELX PLC maintains significant financial capital for acquisitions, supporting its portfolio development strategy. As of 30 June 2025, the reported net debt was £7,443 million, with a Net debt/EBITDA ratio of 2.2x at that time. This financial capacity was recently demonstrated in the first half of 2025, where the company completed three acquisitions for a total consideration of £262 million.

The execution of this strategy is powered by a substantial global workforce of over 36,000 people across more than 40 countries, including around 12,000 technologists working at RELX.

Here's a quick look at some of the core quantitative resources as of mid-2025:

The application of AI and data is segment-specific, creating distinct resource advantages:

• In the Legal division, LexisNexis deploys AI tools to automate contract reviews and compliance checks.
• In Scientific, Technical & Medical (STM), Elsevier uses AI-driven research tools to help scientists analyze vast datasets.
• The Risk division drives growth via its AI-enabled analytics and decision tools, with 90% of its revenue derived from machine-to-machine interactions as of early 2025.

The company's operational efficiency also points to a key resource in process management; the strategy of driving continuous process innovation led to an improved adjusted operating margin to 34.8% in H1 2025, up from 34.1% the prior year. Furthermore, adjusted cash flow conversion reached 100% in the first half of 2025.

RELX PLC (RELX) - Canvas Business Model: Value Propositions

You're looking at how RELX PLC delivers value across its core segments as of late 2025. The whole proposition hinges on shifting the business mix toward higher growth analytics and decision tools that deliver enhanced value to customers. Honestly, the numbers from the first half of 2025 show this strategy is working, with underlying revenue growth hitting 7% to reach £4,741m in that period.

Enhanced decision-making and productivity for legal and corporate professionals

For legal professionals, the value is in providing tools that combine legal, regulatory, and business information with powerful analytics to help them achieve justice and fair results. You see this reflected in the Legal division's performance. The underlying revenue growth for the first nine months of 2025 was 9%. This is being powered by platforms like Lexis+ AI, an integrated platform leveraging generative AI, which is seeing continued successful growth. To give you a sense of scale, there are more than 1.1m Lexis+ users across nine countries, including the US, Canada, and the UK. That's a lot of people using the tools to be more productive.

Risk mitigation via deeply embedded, AI-enabled fraud and identity solutions

In the Risk segment, the value proposition is about combining public and industry-specific content with advanced technology to evaluate and predict risk, which includes fraud and identity solutions. This segment saw underlying revenue growth of 8% year-to-date in the first nine months of 2025, driven by these 'deeply embedded,' AI-enabled analytics and decision tools. Think about the customer base here; RELX does business with 9 of the world's top ten banks and 23 of the world's top 25 insurers. For example, a new location intelligence tool for commercial property underwriting, launched in June 2025, reportedly delivers over 20 times the lift in risk assessment accuracy. That's a concrete example of risk mitigation in action.

Advancing science and improving health outcomes with trusted data and tools

The Scientific, Technical & Medical (STM) segment helps researchers advance scientific knowledge and supports healthcare professionals in improving patient lives. The underlying revenue growth for STM in the first nine months of 2025 was 5%, driven by a shift toward higher value analytics and tools. A key metric here is their contribution to global research quality; they help ensure quality research accelerates progress for society by helping validate, improve, and disseminate over 17% of the world's scientific articles. Renewals and new sales were ahead of the prior year across segments.

High-quality, recurring electronic revenue streams (H1 2025 electronic revenue grew +7%)

A major part of the value is the high-quality, recurring nature of the revenue, which is heavily weighted toward electronic delivery. For the first half of 2025, the electronic revenue grew +7%, matching the group's overall underlying revenue growth of +7%. The group's adjusted operating margin improved to 34.8% in H1 2025, up from 34.1% the prior year, showing cost management below revenue growth. The company achieved 100% adjusted cash flow conversion in the period. Here's the quick math: the shift to analytics and decision tools is clearly improving profitability.

Market access and transaction completion through global exhibition platforms

The Exhibitions segment provides market access, helping customers connect face-to-face and digitally to learn about markets, source products, and complete transactions. This segment showed strong ongoing growth, with underlying revenue growth of 8% in the first nine months of 2025. In 2024, RX (the exhibitions arm) ran 282 face-to-face events in 25 countries, welcoming over 6m participants. They are also embedding digital tools; the Mercury event registration system has been deployed at 100 events to recommend exhibitors to visitors. RELX serves customers in more than 180 countries and territories overall.

You can see the segment performance that underpins these value propositions in the table below:

The focus on high-growth tools is evident when you look at the segment growth rates compared to the group's 7% underlying revenue growth for H1 2025. The company is also actively investing in this value-creation strategy, completing three acquisitions for a total consideration of £262m in the first half of 2025. If you're assessing the portfolio health, the growth in Legal at 9% and Risk at 8% (YTD) is definitely outpacing the group average.

The core value drivers RELX PLC is pushing are:

• Driving growth through analytics and decision tools.
• Helping lawyers promote the rule of law and achieve justice.
• Assisting businesses and governments to prevent fraud.
• Supporting researchers to advance scientific knowledge.
• Enabling customers to get better results and be more productive.

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.

RELX PLC (RELX) - Canvas Business Model: Customer Relationships

You're looking at how RELX PLC keeps its professional and business customers locked in, which is key since their business model leans heavily on recurring revenue from analytics and decision tools. The relationship management here is definitely tiered based on the customer segment.

High-touch, direct sales and renewal management for enterprise subscriptions

For the big enterprise deals, especially within the Risk division, RELX PLC uses a direct sales approach. This isn't about a simple click-to-buy; it's about embedding complex solutions like fraud and identity tools. These high-value relationships are evidenced by the fact that subscriptions for enterprise clients in this area now regularly exceed $10,000 annually, which is a 100% increase in average price since 2019. The company's products often account for less than 1% of a customer's total cost base but have a significant impact on their economics, which helps secure renewals. RELX PLC generally prices these offerings on a subscription basis, often under multi-year contracts. The H1 2025 underlying revenue growth of 7% to £4,741 million shows this sales engine is running well.

Embedded, mission-critical tools leading to high customer switching costs

The stickiness comes from making the tools indispensable. In the Scientific, Technical & Medical segment, Elsevier's AI-driven platforms, like Scopus and Knovel, are treated as infrastructure by researchers. This results in client retention rates above 30% for these specific tools. Similarly, in Legal, the rollout of Lexis+AI and the new Protégé assistant means customers are integrating next-generation AI into core workflows. When your system helps lawyers promote the rule of law or helps businesses prevent fraud, the cost and disruption of switching vendors become prohibitive. This embedded nature is what drives the shift to a higher quality growth profile.

Dedicated customer support and training for complex analytics platforms

Supporting these complex, mission-critical platforms requires significant investment in people and technology. RELX PLC has over 36,000 employees globally, with more than 40% based in North America, supporting this global customer base across more than 180 countries. Furthermore, the company's annual technology spend is approximately $1.9 billion, which directly funds the platforms and the support infrastructure needed to keep them reliable and scalable. This investment underpins the dedicated support necessary for platforms that deliver predictive analytics and regulatory intelligence.

Self-service digital access and continuous product updates

The majority of RELX PLC's products are predominantly delivered in electronic format, facilitating self-service access for many users. The company's strategy emphasizes continuous process innovation to manage cost growth below revenue growth, which naturally feeds into frequent product enhancements. The focus on analytics and decision tools, which saw underlying revenue growth of 7% in the first nine months of 2025, is directly tied to the value derived from these continuous digital updates. The overall adjusted operating margin improvement to 34.8% in H1 2025 reflects the efficiency gained from this digital delivery model.

Here's a quick look at some key metrics that reflect the scale and depth of these customer relationships as of late 2025:

The success in Legal, with strong renewals and new sales across key segments, shows that even in traditional fields, the AI-backed tools are creating new relationship dynamics.

RELX PLC (RELX) - Canvas Business Model: Channels

You're mapping out how RELX PLC gets its analytics and decision tools to customers. It's a mix of high-tech digital delivery and traditional event presence, honestly.

Direct digital delivery platforms are the core engine now. Electronic revenue represented a massive 83% of the group's total revenue in 2024. This digital focus is clearly paying off, with electronic revenue growing by +7% in the first half of 2025. The Legal segment, which houses LexisNexis, saw its underlying revenue grow by +9% year-to-date (YTD) for the first nine months of 2025, partly due to the success of Lexis+ AI. The Risk division, using its digital fraud and identity services, posted an underlying revenue growth of +8% YTD in the same period. Elsevier, part of Scientific, Technical & Medical, contributed to that segment's +5% underlying revenue growth YTD in the first nine months of 2025.

The revenue structure heavily favors recurring access, which is a direct result of these digital channels. Over 50% of RELX PLC's total revenue comes from recurring subscription models, giving you a very stable base.

Here's a look at the segment revenue base from 2024 and the recent growth trends that flow through these channels:

The Global sales force targeting professional and corporate customers is essential for embedding these high-value analytics tools, especially in the Risk and Legal segments. While we don't have a headcount number, the strong growth in Business Services within Risk, driven by Financial Crime Compliance and Fraud & Identity solutions with strong new sales, points to an active direct sales effort. Similarly, the Legal segment's double-digit growth in Law Firms & Corporate Legal, fueled by AI platforms, suggests direct engagement with key corporate buyers.

Physical and digital trade shows and conferences, managed by the Exhibitions division (RX Global), remain a key channel for brand visibility and customer interaction. In 2024, this segment generated revenue of £1.2 billion, which was 11% of the group's total revenue. For the first nine months of 2025, the underlying revenue growth for Exhibitions was +8%, reflecting both the return of in-person events and progress on digital initiatives for event customers.

The channel mix also still includes Third-party distributors for print and print-related products, though this is shrinking fast. The overall group revenue split shows that print revenue declined in 2024, while electronic revenue grew, leading to the 83% electronic revenue share. This means that whatever print distribution remains is a smaller, declining part of the overall channel strategy.

• Electronic revenue share of total: 83% (2024).
• Exhibitions revenue in 2024: £1.2 billion.
• Legal segment growth driven by AI tools like Protégé General AI.
• The company completed £1,000m in share buybacks in 2024 and plans £1,500m for 2025.

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.

RELX PLC (RELX) - Canvas Business Model: Customer Segments

You're looking at the core groups RELX PLC serves across its four main divisions. These aren't just broad categories; they are specific professional communities relying on data and analytics to operate, make decisions, and manage risk. RELX PLC serves customers in more than 180 countries and territories.

The scale of these segments, based on 2024 reported revenue, gives you a clear picture of where the bulk of the business lies:

The total reported revenue for the year ending December 31, 2024, was £9,434m.

The overall business mix is heavily weighted toward digital delivery; electronic revenue represented 83% of the total revenue in 2024.

Here's a breakdown of the specific customer groups within those segments:

• Risk Professionals: Financial crime compliance and digital Fraud & Identity solutions are key drivers of growth in the Business Services area.
• Risk Professionals: Insurance customers benefit from extended solution sets.
• Scientific and Medical Researchers and Institutions (STM segment): This group uses information and data sets to advance science and health outcomes.
• Scientific and Medical Researchers and Institutions (STM segment): Growth is supported by Primary Research, with article submissions growing very strongly.
• Legal Professionals: This includes Law Firms & Corporate Legal departments.
• Legal Professionals: Growth is driven by platforms like Lexis+ AI and the AI legal assistant Protégé.
• Exhibitors and Attendees: This segment combines face-to-face interaction with data and digital tools for market learning and transactions.
• Government and Academic Institutions: These customers are served through the Scientific, Technical & Medical segment, specifically via Academic & Government Primary Research.
• Government and Academic Institutions: Government customers are also served within the Legal segment via analytics and decision tools for Specialised Industry Data Services.

The momentum in the first nine months of 2025 shows the Legal segment leading the growth rate at 9% underlying revenue growth, followed closely by Risk and Exhibitions at 8% each.

The company employs more than 36,000 people, with over 40% located in North America.

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.

RELX PLC (RELX) - Canvas Business Model: Cost Structure

You're looking at the core expenses that power RELX PLC's information-based analytics and decision tools engine. Honestly, the structure leans heavily on intellectual property and the people who manage it.

High fixed costs for content acquisition and data aggregation represent a major component of the Cost of Sales. For the full year 2024, the Cost of Sales was reported at £3,300 million, an increase of 3% from £3,216 million in 2023. This cost base is essential for maintaining the leading content and data sets that underpin their analytics platforms.

Significant investment in technology and AI development is a clear driver of operating expenditure. Capital expenditure for the full year 2024 was £484 million, which notably included £464 million capitalized in development costs, reflecting sustained investment in new products. This investment supports the deployment of tools leveraging artificial intelligence, such as Lexis+ AI.

Employee salaries and benefits for over 36,000 staff form another substantial fixed cost. RELX PLC had 36,400 employees as of December 31, 2024. One 2025 profile suggests a count of 36,000 total employees. Over 40% of these staff are located in North America.

Operating expenses for global exhibition venues and logistics fluctuate with activity levels. In 2024, increased activity levels within the Exhibitions segment contributed to operating cost growth. The reported Selling and distribution costs for 2024 were £1,470 million.

The Cost management strategy keeps cost growth below revenue growth, which is evident in margin expansion. For the full year 2024, underlying revenue growth was 7% while underlying operating costs grew 6%. This discipline continued into the first half of 2025, where underlying revenue growth was 7%, but underlying adjusted operating profit growth was 9%, leading to an improved group adjusted operating margin of 34.8% (up from 34.1% in H1 2024).

Here is a breakdown of the reported operating costs for the year ended December 31, 2024:

The key cost drivers influencing the 2024 operating costs included investment in global technology platforms and the launch of new products and services.

You can see the scale of the fixed and semi-fixed costs in this summary:

• Reported Operating Costs (FY 2024): £6,616 million.
• Employee Count (End of 2024): 36,400.
• Capitalized Development Costs (2024): £464 million.
• Reported Operating Profit (H1 2025): £1,490 million.
• Adjusted Operating Margin (H1 2025): 34.8%.

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.

RELX PLC (RELX) - Canvas Business Model: Revenue Streams

You're looking at how RELX PLC brings in the money, and honestly, it's all about high-value data and decision tools now. The core of their revenue engine is definitely shifting away from older models.

The total revenue for the first half of 2025 hit £4,741 million. That's a solid start, building on the full-year 2024 revenue of £9,434m.

Here's the quick math on how the main segments contributed to that £9,434m in 2024, which sets the stage for the current streams:

The primary revenue stream is subscription and recurring fees for analytics and decision tools. This is where the value is concentrated, as management keeps pointing to the shift toward these higher-value offerings across the board.

The Risk segment revenue is the largest at 34% of 2024 total. This stream is heavily reliant on deeply embedded, AI-enabled analytics and decision tools, especially in Financial Crime Compliance and Digital Fraud & Identity Solutions.

Also significant, the revenue from STM segment is 32% of 2024 total. This is increasingly driven by recurring revenue from Databases, Tools & Electronic Reference, moving away from lower-margin print.

You still see revenue coming from the Exhibitions business, which includes fees from exhibition space sales, sponsorships, and attendee registration. This segment saw strong underlying growth in H1 2025, reflecting the return of face-to-face events.

The Legal segment also contributes substantially, with its revenue mix leaning heavily toward subscription models:

• Transactional revenue made up 16% of Legal revenue in H1 2025.
• Subscription revenue accounted for 84% of Legal revenue in H1 2025.

If onboarding for new tools takes 14+ days, churn risk rises, defintely something to watch in the recurring revenue base.

Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.