diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 14e09e30f..4fea41be2 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ requires = [
     "cymem>=2.0.2,<2.1.0",
     "preshed>=3.0.2,<3.1.0",
     "murmurhash>=0.28.0,<1.1.0",
-    "thinc>=8.1.0.dev0,<8.2.0",
+    "thinc>=8.1.0.dev2,<8.2.0",
     "pathy",
     "numpy>=1.15.0",
 ]
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index b2929145e..082ef1522 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ spacy-legacy>=3.0.9,<3.1.0
 spacy-loggers>=1.0.0,<2.0.0
 cymem>=2.0.2,<2.1.0
 preshed>=3.0.2,<3.1.0
-thinc>=8.1.0.dev0,<8.2.0
+thinc>=8.1.0.dev2,<8.2.0
 ml_datasets>=0.2.0,<0.3.0
 murmurhash>=0.28.0,<1.1.0
 wasabi>=0.9.1,<1.1.0
diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index c6036a8b3..110a2e4ee 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ setup_requires =
     cymem>=2.0.2,<2.1.0
     preshed>=3.0.2,<3.1.0
     murmurhash>=0.28.0,<1.1.0
-    thinc>=8.1.0.dev0,<8.2.0
+    thinc>=8.1.0.dev2,<8.2.0
 install_requires =
     # Our libraries
     spacy-legacy>=3.0.9,<3.1.0
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ install_requires =
     murmurhash>=0.28.0,<1.1.0
     cymem>=2.0.2,<2.1.0
     preshed>=3.0.2,<3.1.0
-    thinc>=8.1.0.dev0,<8.2.0
+    thinc>=8.1.0.dev2,<8.2.0
     wasabi>=0.9.1,<1.1.0
     srsly>=2.4.3,<3.0.0
     catalogue>=2.0.6,<2.1.0
diff --git a/spacy/ml/parser_model.pyx b/spacy/ml/parser_model.pyx
index 57f933b07..e045dc3b7 100644
--- a/spacy/ml/parser_model.pyx
+++ b/spacy/ml/parser_model.pyx
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ from libc.math cimport exp
 from libc.string cimport memset, memcpy
 from libc.stdlib cimport calloc, free, realloc
 from thinc.backends.linalg cimport Vec, VecVec
+from thinc.backends.cblas cimport saxpy, sgemm
 
 import numpy
 import numpy.random
@@ -112,7 +113,7 @@ cdef void predict_states(CBlas cblas, ActivationsC* A, StateC** states,
         memcpy(A.scores, A.hiddens, n.states * n.classes * sizeof(float))
     else:
         # Compute hidden-to-output
-        cblas.sgemm()(False, True, n.states, n.classes, n.hiddens,
+        sgemm(cblas)(False, True, n.states, n.classes, n.hiddens,
             1.0, <const float *>A.hiddens, n.hiddens,
             <const float *>W.hidden_weights, n.hiddens,
             0.0, A.scores, n.classes)
@@ -147,7 +148,7 @@ cdef void sum_state_features(CBlas cblas, float* output,
             else:
                 idx = token_ids[f] * id_stride + f*O
                 feature = &cached[idx]
-            cblas.saxpy()(O, one, <const float*>feature, 1, &output[b*O], 1)
+            saxpy(cblas)(O, one, <const float*>feature, 1, &output[b*O], 1)
         token_ids += F