Skip to content

01 / The Directory

The Lebanese business directory that proved your cousin wrong.

A wasta-free, verified-review index of the country's restaurants, doctors, contractors, salons, and mechanics — built so you stop texting the family group chat to find a plumber.

Claim Your Free Listing Browse the Directory

Free during onboarding · No sponsored boosts · KYC-checked since 2020

MAFI WASTA ✓

VERIFIED TRANSACTION

  • MerchantBourj Hammoud Garage
  • CategoryAuto · Mechanics
  • CodeLB-MW-7Q4X-91
  • Logged14 Mar 2025
★★★★★

"Brakes done in two hours, no upsell. Receipt matched the code."

— Antoine D., verified customer

No wasta. No cousin. Just the receipt.

02 / The Problem

Why we built it — and why you should be skeptical.

In 2019, one of us hired an unlicensed contractor to retile a Beirut apartment. The cousin-of-a-cousin promise lasted exactly eleven days. The deposit lasted forever.

That frustration is not unique to one family in Mar Mikhael. It is the operating system of doing business in Lebanon. You ask a relative. The relative asks a friend. The friend asks someone who knows someone. By the time the recommendation reaches you, it has been laundered through three WhatsApp groups and a promise of future favor.

It is called wasta. It is not just annoying. It is an unfair tax on every Lebanese household that does not have the right last name or the right Sunday lunch invitation. It inflates prices, blocks competent professionals, and shields bad ones.

Mafi Wasta — literally, "there is no wasta" — is our small, stubborn attempt to fix one corner of that. We do not promise to dismantle a centuries-old system. We promise a directory where every review is tied to a real transaction, every business is identity-checked, and no one can buy their way up the ranking.

Ramy, Layla & Joseph
Founders, Mar Mikhael, Beirut

03 / By the Numbers

By the numbers, Q4 2025 — a quarterly status report, not marketing fluff.

38,200+

Verified Lebanese businesses across 28 categories

612,000+

Customer reviews processed since launch

47,800+

Transactions logged across six governorates

84,000+

Mobile-app installs · 4.7★ on the Play Store

Figures audited against the Mafi Wasta SARL public ledger · Updated quarterly

04 / How a Listing Becomes Verified

How a listing becomes verified on Mafi Wasta.

Four published steps. No back rooms. No pay-to-rank shortcuts — we banned sponsored boosts in 2021 and we have not looked back.

  1. i.

    Three-step KYC

    The business owner submits a commercial circular, a national ID, and an on-site photo of the storefront. Over 12,400 Lebanese businesses have cleared it. We do the rest in-house.

  2. ii.

    Unique transaction code

    Every point-of-sale interaction generates a one-time code printed on the receipt or texted to the customer. No code, no review. It is the simplest idea we have, and the one that works.

  3. iii.

    Documented review

    The customer submits a star rating and a short note from home — in Arabic, French, or English. Reviews tied to a real code account for 96% of all submissions. Fake reviews dropped 94% in nine months.

  4. iv.

    Human + AI moderation

    Bilingual AI moderation flags within 90 seconds. A human moderator signs off within four hours. Reply to 90%+ of reviews and earn the green Responsive badge — currently held by 1,180 listings.

06 / The Ask

List your business on Mafi Wasta.
No wasta, no commission, no cousin on the phone.

Free onboarding for the first 90 days. Three-step KYC. We verify you; your customers do the rest.

Claim Your Free Listing Read the Full Process

As featured in

  • Forbes Middle East
  • Annahar
  • L'Orient Today
  • The961
  • UK Lebanon Tech Hub

Established 2020 · 3rd Floor, Gerges Building, Armenia Street, Mar Mikhael, Beirut · [email protected] · +961 1 567 842