LivePerson, a global leader in customer engagement solutions, announced the appointment of Chief Marketing Officer Ruth Zive, who will be introduced to customers as the host of the company's next Executive Community event in San Francisco on October 20. These signature events bring customer care, marketing, and sales VIPs from the world's top brands together to exchange ideas with peers who work with LivePerson to transform customer engagement through Conversational AI. "I've been following LivePerson closely from the sidelines -- impressed by its market presence, roster of top tier enterprise customers, and winning platform -- and can think of no better time to meet customers than during this flagship event," said Zive. "I'm energized to join this team, composed of the industry's best talent, to help catalyze LivePerson's next stage of growth." Zive will oversee LivePerson's global marketing organization, including digital and demand generation, field marketing and sales development, vertical and product marketing, branding, and internal and external communications. Her priority is to grow scalable, measurable, and predictable world-class demand generation while driving operational rigor. In joining LivePerson, Zive becomes a three-time enterprise software CMO.

Only about 0.05% of small startup businesses go on to raise venture capital -- but they tend to hog most of the headlines. Some may simply not be in the market for fast, VC-backed growth. But others have ambitions that are just as big as the VC-backed stars. They have just opted for a different route to get there. Often it is because it hasn't been quite the right time yet for their business idea (see Yoti, for example).

VAPAR an Australian startup in the Internet of Things arena which utilises artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to automate condition assessments for stormwater and sewerage pipelines, has raised $AU700,000 in seed funding. The funding round closed with a diverse range of angel investors in addition to Startmate and Australia's premier VC, Blackbird Ventures, who are also investors in Canva, SafetyCulture, and Culture Amp. The company, which began two years ago started says it aims to bring emerging technology into the traditional asset management space and revolutionise the way infrastructure is tracked, repaired and maintained. Co-founders Amanda Siqueira, CEO, and Michelle Aguilar, CTO, said they started the business after witnessing first-hand the tedious and time-consuming tasks of manual video inspection. Their software is used by water utilities and local councils to reduce the time needed for inspection reviews.

Businesses and investors universally believe Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) can fuel new revenue and profit growth by reinventing customer journeys, transforming the customer experience, and optimizing investments in marketing channels. Consequently, Investment in AI and ML for marketing applications is booming. Despite this frenzy of spending, the impact of these investments on growth is not very clear. Most marketers still do not understand how data and analytics will contribute to profit growth according to the Forbes Marketing Accountability Report. The majority of CFOs struggle to prove the financial return on their investment in analytics.

"Our acquisition of Dynamic Yield has brought us a lot of excitement," says McDonald's CEO Steve Easterbrook. "Very simply put, in the online world when we're shopping and we pick an item and put it into our shopping basket, any website will automatically suggest two or three things to go along with it. We're the first business that we're aware of that can bring that into the physical world. Steve Easterbrook, CEO of McDonald's, discusses how the company is using technology to elevate the customer experience and accelerate growth in an interview on CNBC: As we've executed the growth plan we've spent the first two years, three or four years ago, turning the business around. Now we've had a couple of years of growth.

WIRE)--Glooko, the leader in diabetes data management, today announced $35 million in new funding to accelerate growth, expand international presence, and deepen expertise in data analytics. This round was led by Georgian Partners, a Toronto-based investor focused on applied analytics and machine learning. Other new investors include Insulet Corporation and Mayo Clinic who join existing investors Canaan Partners, Social Capital, Medtronic and Samsung NEXT in the round. Glooko will use the funds to accelerate growth by expanding its sales, marketing and development teams. The company will also increase commercialization efforts in France, Germany, the U.K., Asia and the Middle East, and further development efforts in data analytics and artificial intelligence to provide personalized insights that drive meaningful behavior change.