diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 29da93b8df..ec38b39b43 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ requires = ["hatchling"]
 
 [project]
 name = "scvi-tools"
-version = "1.1.0"
+version = "1.1.0rc1"
 description = "Deep probabilistic analysis of single-cell omics data."
 readme = "README.md"
 requires-python = ">=3.9"