Polish mobile publisher Tequila Mobile is accelerating the roll out of its Tequila Planet free-to-play mobile platform thanks to a $1.7 million financing round.

Private investors in Poland and the UK were behind the funding, which the company hopes will drive its user base from a present six million unique users to 30 million by the end of 2012.

Emerging player

As revealed at the Evolve in London conference, Tequila is currently opening up the platform - which supports iOS but focuses on Android and Java devices, with Windows Phone and BlackBerry to follow - to third party developers.

To-date, it's been seeded by the company's own content, including titles such as Bubble Universe, Fantasy Kingdom Defense and Outlaw Racing 2011.

The platform handles carrier billing (obviously not for iOS), with players in 85 countries able to pay for in-app purchases directly through 360 operators. Revenue split is the typical 70:30.

Tequila claims play-to-paid conversion rates range as high as 14 percent.

Faster, faster

"In the past two years, we've not only successfully launched the Tequila Planet platform, but we also managed to grow it to 6 million users in half a year while focusing heavily on expanding distribution beyond the crowded app stores," said Wojciech Woziwodzki, Tequila's president and CEO.

"With a new round of funding and with new trusted partners joining the platform, we can rapidly expand our catalogue of games and not only reach players through our fast growing distribution network but monetise them through our independent and proven in-app billing infrastructure."

You can find out more about Tequila Planet via its website.