Key Takeaways
- Tanmay is the Co-founder of comedy collective (AIB).
- He runs a successful YouTube channel with over 4 million subscribers.
- Reports in 2025 claimed his net worth was ₹665 crore.
- Known for a major weight loss of around 50 kg.
- Actively invests in Indian startups as an angel investor.
Every time you come across an article in the news with the title Tanmay Bhat is India’s richest YouTuber with a net worth of 665 crore, the follow-up question that arises in your mind is: Did Tanmay Bhat become rich by being on YouTube, or is investment (or even business) a key component of the story?
Brief answer: It is highly improbable that YouTube advertising income, by itself, even of a leading Indian creator, would create such wealth. What is more likely to be the case is that his income is (or would need to be) a combination of creator income + entrepreneurship + investment + brand/business ventures. Or are there other investments, like crypto or investments in the stock market?
Let’s unravel what is publicly known, what is speculative, and what YouTube revenue is doing in India below.
What We Do Know About Tanmay Bhat
Biography & Journey
Childhood/Background: Tanmay Bhat (born 23 June 1987) is a resident of Mumbai.
Rise through AIB: The most notorious achievement of his is the creation of the comedy troupe All India Bak*** (AIB) along with his co-founders, which significantly contributed to the formation of the digital comedy/satire arena in India.
YouTube work & creator work: He owns his two YouTube channels, such as Tanmay Bhat and Honestly By Tanmay Bhat, with significant viewership.
Entrepreneurial actions: With time, he has diversified into content agencies and creative projects and has been linked to startup/investment activity (based on claims to the public).
So his career arc is not a straight line from YouTube to wealth but more of a hybrid: content + business + investments.
The Net Worth Claim & Tanmay’s Response
- Many media outlets have quoted an estimate that Tanmay Bhat’s net worth is ~ ₹665 crore (approx. USD $80 million).
- If true, that would make him one of the highest (if not the highest) valued content creators in India.
- However, Tanmay has publicly denied that the ₹665 crore figure is accurate—he called it “wildly off” in social media responses.
So there is uncertainty and scepticism around the headline net worth claim.
How Much Can a Top Indian YouTuber Earn from YouTube?
It will require considering how ad revenues do in India and how average rates perform to assess whether YouTube would result in crore-level wealth on its own.
CPM / RPM and Earnings in India (Estimates 2025)
- Several estimates show that YouTube generates approximately ₹50 to 200 per 1000 views (of monetisable views, ad impressions) in India, but it is very dependent on niche, engagement, ad format, geography, etc.
- Other, more conservative values indicate that the CPM (or real creator take, i.e., RPM) could be less (₹15-75) based on the type of content.
- To earn in India, 1 crore (10 million) views, depending on the niche, one estimate is 110,000-550,000 (approximately) upon sharing with YouTube.
- In the case of a channel having 1 million subscribers, there are estimates of a monthly income of between 2 lakh and 25 lakh+ based on performance and monetisation mix (ads + sponsorships).
Even for a high-performing channel, scaling that to a sustained, consistent income in the hundreds of crores is extremely hard purely via ads.
Why YouTube Alone Is Usually Not Enough
Revenue share: YouTube retains approximately 45% of the revenue from advertisements; creators receive the rest.
Fluctuations: The reason is that ad demand is prone to drastic changes; seasonality is also a factor, as are viewer geography and engagement measurements.
Monetizable view fraction: Advertisements are not made by all views. Others might not have advertisements or the use of ad blockers.
Diversification: Producers with high incomes may have brand deals, sponsorships, merchandise, paid content, licensing, etc.
Time & scale: In order to accumulate huge capital assets, an individual must perform well over a long period of time.
The Role of Investments & Entrepreneurial Ventures
Tanmay (or any other creator in a comparable situation) would probably use his capital, network and brand to invest in startups, start companies and own equity in them. This is key because:
Equity upside: A modest investment or stock holding in a rapidly growing start-up will grow manifold, significantly more than it would grow through consistent ad revenue.
Tap leverage network/domain knowledge: Since a creator is an industry insider, a person can observe trends, gain access, founders’ mentoring, etc.
Business projects: Establishment of businesses (creative agency, media house, platform) includes ownership and asset development in addition to creator cash.
Passive or semi-passive active increment of assets: Investments and equity do not need to increase by developing material in the daily activities.
Therefore, any plausible assertion of enormous net worth would virtually presuppose that these business/investment courses of action had a significant contribution.
Considering the denials in the press and the lack of confirmed openness, the exact percentage (what proportion of YouTube to investments) is conjectural.
Investment Ventures: The probable Rocket Fuel
In case Tanmay had a net worth in hundreds of crores, it is hard to maintain it through YouTube alone. The more realistic path is:
- Creator earnings are reinvested in startups, media business or equity business.
- Angel/proactive investing in content-based, technology-based, creator economy enterprises.
- The establishment and growth of businesses (creative agencies, platforms) in which he is the owner.
- Brand/network deals, equity deals, cross-platform deals.
Portfolio Of Tanmay Bhatt
By 2025, Tanmay will have invested about 21.7 million dollars in 17 companies, and most of them are startups that are shaping the future of technology, content creation, health, and finance in India. His most notable investments are:
Alt Carbon: Tanmay also took part in a $12 million Seed VC round in Alt Carbon, a sustainability-oriented startup that tries to transform the management of carbon footprint in May 2025.
Unikon.ai: In 2024, he invested in an artificial intelligence and automation-oriented AI-based technology start-up using a 2 million dollar angel funding round.
EquityList: Tanmay invested in this venture in the Seed VC-II round in 2023 with an investment of $2.2 million in this equity crowdfunding and democratising start-up investment venture.
Mainstreet Marketplace: An Indian sneaker resale site that raised 2 million dollars in seed investments in 2023, with Tanmay, as it further explored India, with its expanding sneaker culture.
Ultrahuman: Ultrahuman is a health and longevity platform, which is one of his major early bets in 2022 and deals with wellness and personalised healthcare.
Rigi: A creation broadcast platform and the 10 million in their $10M Series A round, backed by Tanmay in 2022, to empower content creators.
HYPD: A creator-owned marketplace that has raised $1.5 million in seed money in 2022, which helps creators to monetise their fanbase.
GrowthSchool: An educational technology company, Tanmay invested in in its $5 million seed round in 2022, as mentioned, indicating his interest in EdTech.
He is also spread throughout finance-tech, investment-tech and the creator economy, as his portfolio includes companies such as Wint Wealth, Smallcase and Qoohoo.
Conclusion
Then, did Tanmay Bhat turn into the highest-paid Indian YouTuber through the sole power of YouTube? According to publicly available estimates and the dynamics of revenue of Indian content, that is definitely not true.
He is (or could be) a very successful YouTuber/content creator, a person who can make enough income through ads, sponsorships, brand deals, etc.
And to achieve a high net worth of ₹100s-of-crores, one needs to overlay entrepreneurship ventures and equity/investment upside.
Thus, the mere mention of him as a YouTuber who makes content would not provide half the story. He is a creator-entrepreneur or creator-investor in one person.
Ultimately, even assuming that the figure of ₹ 665 crore net worth is taken literally (which Tanmay himself refutes), then it is hardly plausible that it is YouTube content revenue that would have accumulated that wealth. Rather, it is the diversification that is the key powerhouse, i.e., strategic business ventures, equity stakes, and the exploitation of the creative capital.
Nonetheless, the experience of Tanmay only demonstrates the possibility of becoming a leading digital producer, as he probably created a solid content base that provided him with a platform, base, credibility, and capital to grow into a sphere of investment and entrepreneurship. Thus, he is not necessarily the richest YouTuber strictly through advertisements, but he definitely used his YouTube fame to launch a lot of other things.
I left my engineering job to follow my true passion writing and research. A passionate explorer of words and knowledge, I find joy in diving deep into topics and turning rich, insightful research into compelling, impactful content. Whether it’s storytelling, technical writing, or brand narratives, I believe that the right words can make a real difference.
