CMBlu Energy Success Story

About CMBlu Energy

CMBlu Energy is a German cleantech company pioneering Organic SolidFlow™ batteries, a sustainable, scalable alternative to traditional metal-based energy storage. Their aqueous, carbon-based battery systems are designed for long-duration, grid-scale applications and are entirely free of critical raw materials. Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Alzenau, Germany, CMBlu is on a mission to power the energy transition through safe, recyclable, and customizable storage technology. 

Challenge: Speeding Up Material Discovery for Complex Battery Systems 

Before partnering with ExoMatter, CMBlu’s materials research team relied on classic literature reviews and the team’s existing knowledge of materials to identify and evaluate potential battery materials. This approach was time-consuming and made it impossible to go beyond well-known compounds. For a company working on both solid and liquid components of novel battery chemistries, gaining fast, broad insights into new materials were essential, especially as CMBlu builds their competitive edge through proprietary materials in an aqueous environment. 

Solution & Impact: Faster, Smarter Materials Discovery

Since subscribing to ExoMatter, the research team at CMBlu has dramatically increased the speed and broadened the scope of its materials evaluation process, both for validating existing ideas and screening entirely new candidates. The platform now plays an integral role in CMBlu’s solid material development cycle, helping the team explore inorganic compounds more efficiently and systematically. 

Key outcomes include: 

• 5 Times Faster Materials Screening
  Screening that previously took a week can now be completed in a single day, freeing researchers to focus on analysis and testing and creating great competitive advantage. 

• Alternative Material Discovery
  ExoMatter’s “find alternatives” feature helped uncover materials based on alternatives for existing components 

•  4 new promising candidates were found within just a few months. One of these is now undergoing product-scale testing. 

• Custom Property Integration
  In direct response to CMBlu’s needs, ExoMatter developed voltage decomposition capacity as a new property, allowing better evaluation of energy storage potential. 

• Scoring & Ranking Flexibility
  With ExoMatter’s weighted scoring system, researchers can dynamically prioritize properties like cost, capacity, stability, or availability, depending on the relevance to their project. 

CMBlu currently uses ExoMatter in its 3-month R&D cycles, with two researchers focused on inorganic materials. As the company continues on its rapid growth path, plans are in place to double the user base within 1–2 years and explore potential applications beyond the current team. 

The partnership with ExoMatter has also proven highly collaborative. 

“Whenever we had questions or requests, the ExoMatter team was quick to respond and really put in the effort to support our project.” Markus Hartmann – Head of Electrolytes

Looking Ahead: Scaling Innovation Together

CMBlu sees ExoMatter as a core part of their AI-driven research strategy. With increasing material complexity and a growing team, the company plans to deepen its use of the platform. 

“ExoMatter will be an integral part of how we want to do Materials R&D going forward.” Markus Hartmann – Head of Electrolytes