Our Team
Eden Cai
Co-Founder & Managing Partner
Eden Cai is a seasoned real estate executive and entrepreneur with nearly two decades of experience in finance, development, and technology, managing over $5 billion in development projects across the United States and Asia. A pioneer in the field, Ms. Cai has leveraged her expertise to identify and capitalize on untapped real estate opportunities, particularly in the southern United States.
Born and raised in a real estate family, Ms. Cai came to the U.S. at the age of 19. After working for Capital One and US Bank, she returned to Asia in 2010 and became a founding member of a JP Morgan joint venture. In 2015, Ms. Cai joined SMI Group and helped establish its New York office. She played a key role in developing U.S. real estate investment strategy with management responsibilities including acquisition, negotiation, due diligence, financing, marketing, and sales. In 2020, Ms. Cai co-founded GardenStar Group, a real estate investment and technology company aiming at revolutionizing the real estate investment process and products. Her focus is mainly on the south, building rental housing communities and introducing technology into the business of real estate.
Ms. Cai currently serves on the Harvard Alumni Real Estate Board. She also co-founded the Mulan Group – a high powered women’s group in NYC to help empower women. Her contributions to entrepreneurship and the community were recognized in 2024 when she received the Serica “AAPI Rising Stars – Entrepreneur” award. In 2025, she received the Beacon Award sponsored by the Ellis Island Honors Society.
Ms. Cai received her Bachelor’s Degree in Electronics Engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology and a Master’s Degree in Organizational Management from Harvard University. She is an avid marathon runner and enjoys playing cards with her two children.
Eugene Xu
Co-Founder & Managing Partner
Eugene Xu is currently a Managing Partner of New Jersey based real estate investment firm GardenStar Group since 2020. He was a Co-Founder, Chief Risk Officer and Head of Investing Technology at LibreMax Capital, a New York based hedge fund from 2010 until he retired from the firm at the end of 2019. From 2000 to 2010, he worked in Deutsche Bank Securities’ New York office, where he served as Director and Head of Residential Mortgage-related ABS Research, and Managing Director and Head of ABS Trading and Quantitative Modeling. From 1997 to 2000, he served as a Vice President at ABS Research at Credit Suisse, where he was responsible for quantitative analysis, subordinate MBS strategies, and other research projects. Dr. Xu served as Vice President in MBS Research at Chase Securities from 1996 to 1997 and Smith Barney from 1993 to 1996. He was also a Research Member for the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.
Dr. Xu’s research work on subprime mortgages before 2008 was widely known in the MBS investment circle as it was extensively covered in Baron’s feature article Coming Home to Roost on its February 13, 2006 issue. It was also covered by two New York Times non-fiction bestsellers: Gregory Zuckerman’s The Greatest Trade Ever and Michael Lewis’s The Big Short, the latter was adapted into a motion picture which won 2016 Academy Awards in five categories, including the Best Picture. His profile was also featured in March 21, 2011’s Institutional Investors Magazine article The Future Faces of Hedge Funds, among other media coverages.
Dr. Xu holds a B.Sc. degree, a M.Sc. degree in Mathematics from Fudan University in Shanghai, China, and holds a Ph.D. from University of California, Los Angeles.
Eugene Xu
Co-Founder & Managing Partner