diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 6c88c53b..498f537b 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ dependencies = [
     "loompy>=2.0.12",
     "umap-learn>=0.3.10",
     "numba>=0.41.0",
-    "numpy>=1.17",
+    "numpy>=1.17, <2.0.0",
     "pandas>=1.1.1, !=1.4.0",
     "scipy>=1.4.1",
     "scikit-learn>=0.21.2",
diff --git a/scvelo/plotting/utils.py b/scvelo/plotting/utils.py
index 98dc9e45..2804f67c 100644
--- a/scvelo/plotting/utils.py
+++ b/scvelo/plotting/utils.py
@@ -5,7 +5,6 @@
 
 import numpy as np
 import pandas as pd
-from numpy.core._exceptions import UFuncTypeError
 from pandas import Index
 from scipy import stats
 from scipy.sparse import issparse
@@ -24,6 +23,12 @@
 from scvelo.tools.utils import strings_to_categoricals
 from . import palettes
 
+try:
+    from numpy.core._exceptions import UFuncTypeError
+except ModuleNotFoundError:
+    from numpy._core._exceptions import UFuncTypeError
+
+
 """helper functions"""