The first StrictlyVC of 2026 lands in San Francisco on April 30. Tickets are limited. Register here.
Save up to $680 on your Disrupt 2026 pass. Ends 11:59 p.m. PT tonight. REGISTER NOW .
TechCrunch Desktop Logo TechCrunch Mobile Logo Latest Startups Venture Apple Security AI Apps Events Podcasts Newsletters Search Submit Site Search Toggle Mega Menu Toggle Topics Latest
The reputation of troubled YC startup Delve has gotten even worse Julie Bort 2:23 PM PDT · April 1, 2026 The controversy surrounding compliance startup Delve has gone from bad to worse this week. Among the fresh allegations from the anonymous whistleblower known as DeepDelver is the claim that Delve allegedly took an open source tool and passed it off as its own work without proper license attribution to or monetary agreement with the original developer.
The story goes that the Delve team pitched a no-code tool it called Pathways to a prospect. That prospect would later become the whistleblower DeepDelver. DeepDelver recognized that Pathways looked a lot like Sim.ai’s open source agent-building product called SimStudio and asked Delve if it was based on SimStudio. The Delve folks said they built it themselves, the whistleblower contends.
DeepDelver then presented alleged evidence that this tool was actually a fork — a modified copy — of SimStudio, changed just enough to be passed off as Delve’s own. If that proves true, it would be a violation of the Apache software license, which requires the original developer be credited.
DeepDelver calls this “stealing intellectual property,” which is a bit of a stretch, since open source tools are freely available to be used, if they are properly credited. But the irony is hard to miss: Delve, a startup that purports to sell a compliance solution, may have violated a software license.
Sim.ai’s founder and CEO, Emir Karabeg, confirmed to TechCrunch that he answered DeepDelver’s questions about the allegations. He told the whistleblower that Delve had no license agreement with Sim.ai whatsoever.
“We knew they planned to use Sim for something and later tried unsuccessfully to sell them an agreement,” Karabeg told DeepDelver. “I didn’t realize they were going to sell it out of the box as a stand-alone solution.”
Adding to the awkwardness: Sim.ai was actually a Delve customer, Karabeg told TechCrunch. Both startups were grads of the startup accelerator Y Combinator, and Y Combinator alumni frequently buy each other’s products. So while Sim.ai paid Delve, Delve did not do the same for Sim.ai.
Techcrunch event Disrupt 2026: The tech ecosystem, all in one room Your next round. Your next hire. Your next breakout opportunity. Find it at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, where 10,000+ founders, investors, and tech leaders gather for three days of 250+ tactical sessions, powerful introductions, and market-defining innovation. Register now to save up to $400. Save up to $300 or 30% to TechCrunch Founder Summit 1,000+ founders and investors come together at TechCrunch Founder Summit 2026 for a full day focused on growth, execution, and real-world scaling. Learn from founders and investors who have shaped the industry. Connect with peers navigating similar growth stages. Walk away with tactics you can apply immediately Offer ends March 13. San Francisco, CA | October 13-15, 2026 REGISTER NOW Karabeg had even expressed sympathy for Delve after the whistleblower dropped the first bombshell last week. DeepDelver originally alleged that Delve was faking customer data and using 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 at Delve after the first post was released last week, but since I found out about this news we haven’t been in contact,” he told TechCrunch.
Delve’s alleged methods preceded its Series A funding round led by Insight Partners, the whistleblower also alleges. We’ve reached out to Insight Partners to ask about this, and about the venerable VC firm’s due-diligence process.
We know that Insight Partners’ 2025 blog post about why it led a $32 million investment into Delve was , for a short time, unavailable on the VC firm’s website. The firm’s LinkedIn post about the investment has not been restored, at least at this time.
Mentions of the Pathways tool on Delve’s site, along with many other pages, also appear to have been scrubbed . Delve did not respond to a request for comment, and the media inquiries address on its website no longer works.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
-- --
PLEASE LIKE IF YOU FOUND THIS HELPFUL TO SUPPORT OUR FORUM.
