From its co-founders to its inception, Carolina Instruments is Carolina blue, through and through. The startup, which assumed its earliest form in the UNC Neuroscience and Engineering research labs, is developing a wearable, camera-free eye-tracking technology that measures eye movement and pupil size while greatly extending battery life.
CEO Ellora McTaggart met one of her co-founders, Dr. Nicholas Pegard, when he came to do a guest lecture in her undergraduate biology class at UNC Chapel Hill. Pegard, an optical engineer, worked with laser-based 3D holograms to image neural circuits in the brain. He thought this could be applied to the eyes, having previously been frustrated in his research with the limitations of eye-tracking technologies.
Pegard invited McTaggart to work at his lab alongside their eventual third co-founder, Dr. Jose Rodriguez-Romaguera.
McTaggart landed in a perfect storm as the UNC researchers began developing what is now Carolina Instruments. She ultimately took on the role of CEO with the budding startup in 2025 and has since become its face around the Triangle entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Carolina Instruments in action
The latest prototype that Carolina Instruments has developed looks like a simple pair of glasses. Inside the frame of the glasses are light sensors, and on the sides are diodes that emit harmless infrared light up against the temple. The light passes through the tissue, exits through the pupil and can then be translated into information about the eye’s movement and dilation.
McTaggart takes care to distinguish Carolina Instruments from seemingly similar technologies like Meta glasses or Apple Vision Pro glasses. She said that the Carolina Instruments technology samples 10 times faster than existing market technology—and with a much longer battery life, since it uses light rather than cameras to collect eye movement data. The technology is able to collect valuable information that’s not just relevant for neuroscientists, but also provides insight into things like attention, stress levels and fatigue.
The startup’s hope is to develop an integration that works in conjunction with existing virtual reality headset technology, and which would have applications for research, extended virtual reality and beyond. There is a widespread market for eye-tracking technology at an estimated 1.8 billion worldwide, a number that is projected to go up to 8.1 billion in 2030, according to McTaggart.
However, she said that the team at Carolina Instruments are keenly aware of the ways that an emerging form of user data like eye-tracking data can be used especially in order to capitalize on people’s attention. With that in mind, she wants to be intentional about the ways in which the Carolina Instruments technology is used.
“There’s a lot of value in being able to monitor someone’s state in so many different fields [and] we’re still actively exploring that,” McTaggart said. “And so we have our north star of being interested in expanding access to neurological insights.”
Though the startup was initially grounded at UNC, McTaggart and Carolina Instruments have been busily integrating into the broader North Carolina entrepreneurial scene. NC IDEA, RIoT Labs and Angel Investors are all early supporters of Carolina Instruments. Additionally, the startup was able to present at CED’s Venture Connect summit (where they were voted the audience’s favorite presentation in their pitch session).
During a presentation at Raleigh-Durham Startup Week this April, McTaggart was also named one of the inaugural recipients of the Bold Path Fellowship. This is a new (as of 2026) initiative spearheaded by the NC IDEA Foundation that awards fellows $120K in non-dilutive grant funding and involves a two-year mentorship and support program.
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Startup: Carolina Instruments
Co-Founders: Ellora McTaggart (CEO), Nicolas Pegard, Jose Rodriguez-Romaguera
Founded: 2024
Team size: 3
Location: Chapel Hill
Website: carolina-instruments.com
Funding: Bootstrapped w/grant funding; entering $2M raise
McTaggart described her decision to take on the role of CEO at Carolina Instruments as something of a leap of faith; she was faced with the decision to either continue with her research and career in academia or take on the responsibility of a developing company as a young woman from Western North Carolina. Now, she said that she’s found incredible support navigating the complexities of leading Carolina Instruments as they pursue grants and further funding to keep developing the technology.
“Overall, it’s been really awesome to step into this role and to lean on the support system and recognize that people do really think that I have the potential to run this company and do what needs to happen,” McTaggart said. “And so that’s what I would say about the wins from Carolina Instruments, aside from all of the grants on paper, I think that for me as a young woman founder in the space, it’s been really incredible.”
