An nameless Substack submit printed this week accuses compliance startup Delve of “falsely” convincing “a whole bunch of shoppers they have been compliant” with privateness and safety laws, doubtlessly exposing these clients to “legal legal responsibility beneath HIPAA and hefty fines beneath GDPR.”
Delve is a Y Combinator-backed startup that final yr introduced elevating a $32 million Sequence A at a $300 million valuation. (The spherical was led by Perception Companions.) On Friday, the startup tried to refute the accusations on its weblog, calling the Substack submit “deceptive” and saying it “incorporates plenty of inaccurate claims.”
The Substack submit is credited to “DeepDelver,” who described themselves as working at a (now former) Delve shopper. In response to emailed questions from TechCrunch, DeepDelver mentioned that they and their collaborators “selected to stay nameless out of worry for retaliation by Delve.”
Of their submit, DeepDelver recounted receiving an e-mail in December claiming the startup had “leaked a spreadsheet with confidential shopper experiences.” Whereas Delve CEO Karun Kaushik apparently assured clients in a subsequent e-mail that they have been in compliance and that no exterior celebration gained entry to delicate information, DeepDelver mentioned they and different clients had turn out to be suspicious.
“Having the shared expertise of being underwhelmed with the Delve expertise, and having the general sense that one thing fishy was happening, we determined to pool sources and examine collectively,” they wrote.
Their conclusion? That Delve “achieves its declare of being the quickest platform by producing pretend proof, producing auditor conclusions on behalf of certification mills that rubber stamp experiences, and skipping main framework necessities whereas telling shoppers they’ve achieved 100% compliance.”
DeepDelver went into appreciable element about these claims, accusing the startup of offering clients with “fabricated proof of board conferences, assessments, and processes that by no means occurred,” then forcing these clients to “select between adopting pretend proof or performing largely guide work with little actual automation or AI.”
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DeepDelver additionally claimed that just about all of Delve’s shoppers appear to have gone via two audit corporations, Accorp and Gradient, which they described as “a part of the identical operation,” one which operates primarily in India, with solely a nominal presence in the USA.
These corporations, they mentioned, are simply rubber-stamping experiences that have been generated by Delve. Because of this, DeepDelver mentioned the startup “inverts” the conventional compliance construction: “By producing auditor conclusions, take a look at procedures, and ultimate experiences earlier than any impartial overview happens, Delve locations itself within the function of each implementer and examiner. This isn’t a technicality. It’s a structural fraud that invalidates the whole attestation.”
Along with accusing Delve of deceptive its clients, DeepDelver mentioned the startup helps these clients “mislead the general public by internet hosting belief pages that comprise safety measures that have been by no means applied.”
DeepDelver mentioned that whereas their firm was discussing its points with Delve, the startup “despatched us a number of containers of donuts […] to maintain us completely happy.” Nonetheless, DeepDelver’s employer supposedly unpublished its belief web page and now not depends on the startup for compliance.
Delve responded to the accusations by saying it doesn’t difficulty compliance experiences in any respect. As an alternative, it’s an “automation platform” that ingests details about compliance, then gives auditors with entry to that info.
“Ultimate experiences and opinions are issued solely by impartial, licensed auditors, not Delve,” the corporate mentioned.
Delve additionally mentioned that its clients “can choose to work with an auditor of their selecting or choose to work with one from Delve’s community of impartial, accredited third-party audit corporations.” These auditors, the startup mentioned, are “established corporations used broadly throughout the trade, together with by different compliance platforms.”
In response to the accusation that it’s offering clients with “pretend proof,” Delve countered that it’s merely providing “templates to assist groups doc their processes in accordance with compliance necessities, as do different compliance platforms.”
“Draft templates aren’t the identical as ‘pre-filled proof,’” the corporate mentioned.
Delve added that it’s “actively investigating any leaks” and is “nonetheless reviewing the Substack.”
When requested about Delve’s response, DeepDelver informed TechCrunch that they have been “baffled by the laziness, clumsiness and brazenness of it.”
“They’re attempting to snake their method out [of] being held accountable by denying having ‘pre-filled proof’ however calling it ‘templates’ as a substitute, successfully shifting the blame to clients for adopting the ‘templates’ as is,” DeepDelver mentioned. “They’re claiming they don’t seem to be those to ‘difficulty’ the report, which is simple to assert in the event you outline issuing a report as offering the ultimate stamp.”
They added that there are “plenty of very critical allegations” that Delve didn’t handle in any respect: “The India accusation, the shortage of AI (they solely speak about ‘automations’), and the belief (lol) web page containing controls that have been by no means applied.”
Apparently DeepDelver isn’t carried out with its criticism, because it promised, “Half II will observe quickly.”
As well as, following the preliminary Substack submit, an X person named James Zhou mentioned they have been in a position to acquire entry to delicate info from Delve, resembling worker background checks and fairness vesting schedules. Dvuln founder Jamieson O’Reilly shared extra particulars from what O’Reilly mentioned was a dialog with Zhou about “a number of gaping safety holes in Delve’s exterior assault floor.”
TechCrunch despatched an e-mail looking for extra remark to the media contact handle listed on Delve’s web site. The e-mail bounced, however after this text was printed, I acquired a calendar invite for a “Delve demo” later this week.
This submit was initially printed on March 21, 2026. It has been up to date with emailed solutions from DeepDelver, extra details about purported safety vulnerabilities supplied by Jamieson O’Reilly, and extra particulars about Delve’s response to TechCrunch.
