CoStar Group announced Tuesday it has agreed to acquire Vexcel Group for approximately $730 million in cash, adding a sprawling aerial-imagery operation to its real estate data empire. Vexcel's cameras capture more than 60 million images a year across more than 45 countries, with coverage reaching 320 major global metros and 99.6% of the U.S. population.
The deal, announced on Oct. 27, 2026, according to CoStar Group's investor relations site, would bring in-house one of the industry's most extensive survey-grade imagery programs. Vexcel designs and manufactures its own UltraCam family of aerial cameras and controls the entire pipeline, from the aircraft and capture technology to processing the data once it lands. Its images carry resolutions of 7.5 to 15 centimeters, precise enough to support insurance underwriting, catastrophe response, infrastructure planning and digital mapping.
A Business Built for Speed and Scale
Vexcel refreshes imagery in major U.S. metros up to three times a year, and it can get planes into the air over disaster zones within 24 hours of an event, per the CoStar release. That kind of turnaround has made aerial imagery increasingly central to how insurers operate. Carriers are folding these images directly into underwriting, rating and claims workflows, as Carrier Management has reported, using before-and-after shots to gauge storm damage, prioritize inspections and route adjusters without sending a person to every rooftop.
Computer-vision tools are also turning that raw imagery into structured, searchable data, the trade publication notes. That is effectively the bet CoStar is making: pair Vexcel's camera network with artificial intelligence to extract hundreds of data fields per property across what the company describes as approximately half a billion properties captured by Vexcel. CoStar says it will lean on its 2,000-person sales force to push that expanded data product to customers.
Financials Behind the Deal
Vexcel generated more than $140 million in revenue over the trailing 12 months, up over 30% from the prior period, with an adjusted EBITDA margin of roughly 20%. CoStar has a sales force of about 2,000. Once the transaction closes, Vexcel will keep operating its data program under its own brand and continue serving its existing customers and partners worldwide, per CoStar's announcement.
The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2027, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals, the company said. Vexcel had already been scaling up its U.S. footprint before the deal was announced: its 2026 collection program was designed to refresh imagery covering 95% of the U.S. population and more than 122 million households, with major cities slated for up to three collections over the year, according to a company release distributed via PR Newswire.
Part of a Broader Buying Spree
The Vexcel purchase extends a string of acquisitions CoStar has made to broaden beyond its roots in commercial real estate data. In April 2024, the company agreed to acquire Matterport, the 3D digital-twin and virtual-tour firm, in a cash-and-stock deal valued at an estimated $1.6 billion in enterprise value, a transaction that closed in February 2025, as Bisnow has reported. At the time of that deal, Matterport had captured more than 12 million spaces across 177 countries, representing more than 38 billion square feet of digital property under management.
CoStar also completed its purchase of homebuilding data and software company Zonda in August 2025 for $800 million in cash, according to Virginia Business; Bisnow's reporting put that same purchase price at $815 million, a discrepancy that has not been resolved between the two outlets. Virginia Business also reported that CoStar posted $3.2 billion in revenue in 2025, up from $2.7 billion in 2024.
Bisnow's coverage adds some financial headwinds to the backdrop of the Vexcel deal: the outlet reported that CoStar's annualized net new bookings totaled $37 million in the most recent quarter it cited, down sharply from $84 million a year earlier, and that CoStar's share price fell more than 13% on the Wednesday referenced in that report, down 65% over the prior year. Whether the Vexcel acquisition changes that trajectory will likely depend on how quickly CoStar's sales team can turn the aerial-imagery business into new bookings once the deal closes in early 2027.
