By Riley Kaminer
When Refresh Miami sat down with Mikus Opelts, his Zoom background could not have been more fitting: a view of the ever-changing Wynwood skyline, complete with yellow cranes symbolically mirroring his company’s logo.
Opelts shared the story of how his journey from art school to tech entrepreneurship led to the creation of Giraffe360, a Miami startup whose innovative approach to real estate photography is transforming how properties are presented and sold in the digital age.
Opelts’ initial foray into entrepreneurship began at age 20 with a media production company that specialized in high-end real estate and hospitality photography, including drone shots and immersive VR experiences.
As his business grew, Opelts began to realize that the high-end, boutique productions his company excelled at weren’t scalable to every property. This realization sparked the idea for Giraffe360: a technology that would allow anyone to create professional-quality, immersive property presentations with just a few button presses.
Opelts and team spent nearly four years developing their first commercial camera, launched in 2020. “It actually took us three or four years to build the kit,” he said, emphasizing the complexity of creating a user-friendly device that didn’t compromise on quality.
The result of this labor is a custom-built camera that incorporates components from partners like Nvidia and Sony, alongside proprietary technology like their in-house developed LiDAR for accurate measurements. The device epitomizes Opelts’ vision of simplifying complex technology for everyday use in the real estate industry, with over 90% of their users being real estate agents and brokers.
According to Opelts, Giraffe360’s solution offers a 50% cost reduction compared to traditional photography services and triples the speed of content production. “If you use Giraffe, you can list on the same day or start your content broadcasting, publishing and social media the same day,” he explained, contrasting this with the typical three to four-day turnaround for traditional photography services.
The company’s subscription-based model, starting at $223 per month for individual realtors, was a deliberate choice rooted in Opelts’ experience with his previous business. “Where your money comes from is how, as a CEO, I end up thinking about business,” he said. This approach has paid off, Opelts asserted, sharing that Giraffe360 has impressive customer retention rates and an average client lifetime of four years and growing.
Giraffe360’s journey led them to Miami, a move influenced by our city’s burgeoning tech scene and the location of their lead Series A investors, Founders Fund. Since officially launching in the U.S. in early 2022, the American market has now become their fastest-growing region.
Currently, around 20 of Giraffe360’s 220 employees are based in Miami – a number that Opelts expects to roughly double by the end of next year.
Looking to the future, Opelts hinted at exciting developments in the pipeline. “We think it’s time to up a notch and really switch to the next generation of how the remote property experience happens,” he said, suggesting that upcoming product releases would make real estate presentations “more interesting” across various platforms, from social media to listing sites.
READ MORE IN REFRESH MIAMI:
- Miami real estate investment sourcing platform Getaway has been acquired by proptech Doorvest
- DASHing into the future: Revolutionizing real estate with new builds
- With $4B in real estate transactions under its belt, Propy continues to push the boundaries
- Just Waltz in, Waltz out: This venture-backed Miami startup makes international home buying a breeze
- Proptech startup Giraffe360 officially makes Miami its US headquarters
- PRIMA raises $5M to turn hot tables into a referral business - September 4, 2026
- WellStack acquires DeLorean AI, plans to grow platform and South Florida footprint - September 3, 2026
- Inside OpenSeed’s plan to bring calm back to work, 12 minutes at a time - September 3, 2026