The reputation of troubled YC startup Delve has gotten even worse

The issues surrounding compliance startup Delve have escalated significantly this week. New allegations from the anonymous whistleblower known as DeepDelver have surfaced, claiming that Delve improperly utilized an open-source tool, presenting it as proprietary work without appropriate license attribution or an agreement with the original developer.

According to the whistleblower, Delve presented a no-code tool named Pathways to a prospective customer who subsequently became DeepDelver. Upon observing similarities between Pathways and Sim.ai’s open-source agent-building tool, SimStudio, DeepDelver inquired whether Pathways was derived from SimStudio. Delve representatives reportedly claimed they created Pathways independently, as per the whistleblower’s account.

DeepDelver has since put forth evidence suggesting that Pathways is, in fact, a modified copy — or a fork — of SimStudio, altered marginally to be misrepresented as Delve’s own creation. If these assertions are substantiated, they would constitute a breach of the Apache software license, which mandates that original developers receive credit.

DeepDelver characterized this act as “stealing intellectual property.” While this claim may be somewhat exaggerated—given that open-source tools are intended for public use with proper attribution—the irony remains palpable: Delve, a firm purporting to provide a compliance solution, may have breached software licensing laws.

Emir Karabeg, founder and CEO of Sim.ai, confirmed to TechCrunch that he addressed DeepDelver’s inquiries regarding these allegations. Karabeg indicated to the whistleblower that there was no licensing agreement in place between Delve and Sim.ai.

“We were aware they intended to utilize Sim for some purpose and later attempted, without success, to sell us on an agreement,” Karabeg explained to DeepDelver. “I had no idea they planned to market it as a standalone solution.”

Compounding the situation, Karabeg informed TechCrunch that Sim.ai had been a customer of Delve. Both companies are graduates of Y Combinator, which often encourages alumni to purchase each other’s services. As such, while Sim.ai paid Delve for its offerings, Delve did not reciprocate with a transaction for Sim.ai’s services.

Karabeg initially expressed support for Delve following DeepDelver’s earlier allegations regarding the fabrication of customer data and the usage of rubber-stamping auditors—claims that Delve has denied.

Since the emergence of the Sim.ai allegations, Karabeg has indicated that he has not had contact with Delve’s founders. “I was reaching out to support my friends at Delve after the initial accusations surfaced, but I have not heard from them since this new information came to light,” he shared with TechCrunch.

The whistleblower also asserts that the alleged practices preceded Delve's Series A funding round, which was led by Insight Partners. We have contacted Insight Partners to inquire about the situation and the due diligence processes employed by the firm.

Notably, Insight Partners’ blog post from 2025 explaining their $32 million investment in Delve was removed following the distribution of these recent allegations.