Underwriting checklist

Minimum fields and rules before third-party capital should touch robotic contracted work. Built to sit beside the scenario essay, not replace diligence.

For capital allocators diligence on robotic contracted cashflows · Not legal or investment advice

Pass/fail mindset: if a row is missing, the corridor is not ready for outside paper. Opacity is a price, or a refusal.

1. Parties and credit

Legal obligor(s) on fees: operator, end customer, OEM, guarantor.
Credit file or public rating proxy for each material obligor.
Parent support language: hard guarantee, keepwell, or none.
Jurisdiction, enforcement path, and assignment / true-sale opinion status.

2. Contract economics

Fee definition: hours, picks, pallets, uptime, or outcome SLA (one primary unit).
Term, renewal, termination for convenience, and termination for cause.
Who pays in downtime: operator, OEM warranty, insurance, or open gap.
Price escalators, volume floors, and take-or-pay if any.
Change-order rules when site layout or SKU mix shifts.

3. Work and utilization (billable events)

Billable event definition that cannot be satisfied by a heartbeat alone.
Utilization numerator/denominator, sampling frequency, and audit rights.
Historical tape if available; otherwise staged advance with seasoning.
Exclusions: maintenance windows, operator-caused stops, force majeure.

4. Assets, service, residual

Asset schedule: serials, software version baseline, location.
Service provider identity and step-in rights on OEM/integrator default.
Parts lead times and single-source dependencies.
Residual policy: appraised, depreciated, or advanced at near-zero.
Insurance: property, liability, business interruption where material.

5. Correlation and concentration caps

Max single-site share of pool NAV.
Max single-OEM share; software staged-rollout covenant.
Max single-sector share (e.g. e-comm 3PL).
Integrator concentration and key-person/process dependency notes.

6. Structure and cash controls

Payment waterfalls: senior, reserves, mezz, residual, builder.
Lockbox / account control agreement where appropriate.
Default, rapid amortization, and cash sweep triggers.
Reporting pack: monthly utilization, delinquencies, service incidents, software versions.

7. Labor and site transition (timeline risk)

Roles automated vs retained; transition timeline.
Training or redeployment budget if material to site stability.
Known labor or community constraints that can delay ramp.

8. Refusal conditions (automatic no)

No auditable billable-event definition.
Advance depends primarily on hopeful residual markets.
Single OEM software risk uncapped across the pool.
Service dies with OEM and no step-in path.
True sale / enforceability unresolved in the relevant jurisdiction.

Essay context: Financing deployed robot fleets.