Single page applications and elements

Are there still any benefits of using a <form> element instead of let's say a <div> element in the context of a single page application? The purpose of the <form> element makes sense to me if the "form" submission isn't made with an ajax call (I'm talking about the more traditional way of submitting a form, with a input/button of type "submit" and the action attribute of the form element that describes the url to call), but otherwise I do not see it's utility (maybe for search engines?).