Delve cofounder Karun Kaushik breaks silence after fraud allegations
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Delve cofounder and CEO Karun Kaushik has responded publicly to fraud allegations against the AI compliance startup, a move that comes shortly after Y Combinator removed the company from its portfolio.
The company, which was founded by Kaushik and Selin Kocalar, who is the chief operating officer, after dropping out of MIT, is a compliance startup.
The statement, issued via a post on X (formerly Twitter), marks the company’s first response since the allegations surfaced. The allegations were charged by a whistleblower named DeepDelver, accusing the startup of passing off an open source tool from Sim.ai as its own product.
Garry Tan, who is the president and CEO of Y Combinator confirmed the news on Bookface—a YC forum for startup founders who are part of the community.
Kaushik said the delay in responding was due to ongoing internal investigations. "There’s been a lot of allegations against Delve. But we haven’t been able to share our side of the story until today due to ongoing cybersecurity and forensics investigations. Maintaining customer trust is central to everything we do.”
The allegations centre on claims that Delve generated compliance outputs without adequate verification, raising concerns about the reliability of its AI-led audit processes. The company has denied any deliberate wrongdoing. At the same time, Kaushik acknowledged shortcomings in execution. “That said, we grew too fast and fell short of our own standard. To our customers, we deeply apologize for the inconveniences caused.”
He added that the company has initiated a set of corrective measures in response to the situation. “We take these allegations seriously and have made changes: a new auditor network, free re-audits and pentests for all customers, enhanced transparency in audit communications, and more.”
The company also has framed the incident not as whistleblowing but as a targeted attack. “However, we also want to set the record straight on the anonymous attacks. The evidence we have points to a targeted cyberattack from a malicious actor, not a ‘whistleblower.’ We believe the attacker purchased Delve under false pretenses, exfiltrated internal company data, and used it to launch a coordinated smear campaign. The posts rely on a mix of fabricated claims, cherry-picked screenshots, and stolen data taken out of context.”
Kaushik, however, indicated that the company intends to continue operations and rebuild trust. “Delve was built to modernize compliance. We are not going anywhere and are committed to building what’s next.”