Artificial intelligence (AI) is experiencing significant growth, with numerous startups in Silicon Valley attracting substantial investments. Y Combinator, a prominent player in this sector, has been associated with many successful startups. Delve, a startup led by Karun Kaushik (CEO) and Selin Kocalar (COO), faced allegations from an anonymous whistleblower named DeepDelver. The whistleblower accused Delve of plagiarizing an open-source tool and attempting to pass it off as their own product.
Delve, a compliance startup founded in 2023 by Karun and Selin, focuses on automating security and regulatory compliance for companies, such as SOC 2, HIPAA, and GDPR. The startup raised $32 million in a Series A funding round last year.
Following the controversy, Delve was asked to leave Y Combinator due to a breach of trust, as confirmed by YC President and CEO Garry Tan on Bookface, a forum for startup founders within the YC community. The allegations against Delve include fabricating compliance evidence and providing clients with falsified documentation. DeepDelver claimed that Delve utilized an open-source tool from Sim.ai without proper credit, violating Apache 2.0 terms.
Sim.ai’s CEO confirmed that Delve did not obtain a license to use their tools. In response to the allegations, Delve’s co-founders, Karun Kaushik and Selin Kocalar, denied the claims, attributing them to a targeted cyberattack. They asserted that the data shared by the whistleblower was cherry-picked and taken out of context to harm their reputation.
Delve assured its customers of re-audits and pen tests, stating that they had rebuilt their auditor network and changed their auditors. The company clarified in a blog post that they utilized an open-source tool in compliance with Apache 2.0 guidelines, though they did not mention Sim.ai by name.
Y Combinator’s decision to part ways with Delve underscores the importance of trust within the startup community. The co-founders remain firm in their denial of the allegations and are taking steps to address the situation transparently with their clients.