The reputation of troubled YC startup Delve has gotten even worse

The controversy surrounding compliance startup Delve has gone from atrocious to worse this week. Among the fresh allegations from the anonymous whistleblower known arsenic DeepDelver is the assertion that Delve allegedly took an unfastened root instrumentality and passed it disconnected arsenic its ain enactment without due licence attribution to oregon monetary statement with the archetypal developer.

The communicative goes that the Delve squad pitched a no-code instrumentality it called Pathways to a prospect. That imaginable would aboriginal go the whistleblower, DeepDelver. DeepDelver recognized that Pathways looked a batch similar Sim.ai’s open-source agent-building merchandise called SimStudio and asked Delve if it was based connected SimStudio. The Delve folks said they built it themselves, the whistleblower contends.

DeepDelver past presented alleged grounds that this instrumentality was really a fork — a modified transcript — of SimStudio, changed conscionable capable to beryllium passed disconnected arsenic Delve’s own. If that proves true, it would beryllium a usurpation of the Apache bundle license, which requires the archetypal developer beryllium credited.

DeepDelver calls this “stealing intelligence property” which is simply a spot of a stretch, since unfastened root tools are freely disposable to beryllium used, if they are decently credited. But the irony is hard to miss: Delve, a startup that purports to merchantability a compliance solution, whitethorn person violated a bundle license.

Sim.ai’s laminitis and CEO Emir Karabeg confirmed to TechCrunch that helium spoke with DeepDelver astir the allegations. He told the whistleblower that Delve had nary licence statement with Sim.ai whatsoever.

Recounting to TechCrunch what helium had told DeepDelver, Karabeg said: “We knew they planned to usage Sim for thing and aboriginal tried unsuccessfully to merchantability them an agreement. I didn’t recognize they were going to merchantability it retired of the container arsenic a standalone solution.”

Adding to the awkwardness: Sim.ai was really a Delve customer, Karabeg told TechCrunch. Both startups were grads of the startup accelerator Y Combinator, and Y Combinator alumni often bargain each other’s products. So portion Sim.ai paid Delve, Delve did not bash the aforesaid for Sim.ai.

Karabeg had adjacent expressed sympathy for Delve aft the whistleblower dropped the archetypal bombshell past week. DeepDelver primitively alleged that Delve was faking lawsuit information and utilizing rubber-stamping auditors, allegations that Delve has denied.

Since learning of the Sim.ai allegations, Karabeg has not heard from Delve’s founders. “I was consoling my friends astatine Delve aft the archetypal station was released past week, but since I recovered retired astir this quality we haven’t been successful contact,” helium told TechCrunch.

Delve’s alleged methods preceded its Series A backing circular led by Insight Partners, the whistleblower besides alleges. We’ve reached retired to Insight Partners to inquire astir this, and astir the venerable VC firm’s owed diligence process.

We cognize that Insight Partner’s 2025 blog station astir wherefore it led a $32 cardinal concern into Delve was, for a abbreviated time, unavailable connected the VC firm’s website. The firm’s LinkedIn post astir the concern has not been restored, astatine slightest astatine this time.

Mentions of the Pathways instrumentality connected Delve’s site, on with galore different pages, besides appear to have been scrubbed. Delve did not respond to a petition for comment, and the media inquiries code connected its website nary longer works.

The allegations that Delve whitethorn person violated an unfastened root licence of a lawsuit and, apparently, a person generated truthful overmuch outcry connected X that has go a trending topic, implicit with a scathing assemblage note.